Farhad Hakimzadeh, millionaire businessman entered a guilty plea in May to 14 counts of theft over a massive series of book-mutilations at the British Library and the Bodleian, was sentenced today to two years in prison, the BBC reports.
Passing sentence, Judge Peter Ader said: "As an author, you cannot have been unaware of the damage you were causing. You have a deep love of books, perhaps so deep that it goes to excess. I have no doubt that you were stealing in order to enhance your library and your collection. Whether it was for money or for a rather vain wish to improve your collection is perhaps no consolation to the losers."
Civil proceedings continue. More on all this soon.
