Judge Richard Lowden told Scott "You are to some extent a fantasist and have to some degree a personality disorder and you have been an alcoholic. It is clear that from the (psychiatric) report you are not suffering from any mental disorder."
Of the First Folio, Lowden said "It would be regarded by many as priceless but to you it was definitely at a very big price and you went to very great lengths for that price. Your motivation was for financial gain. You wanted to fund an extremely ludicrous playboy lifestyle in order to impress a woman you met in Cuba. Your Cuban friends were brought in to provide support for your elaborate scheme. Of the theft itself, for which Scott was acquitted, Lowden remarked "You either did it or you embraced the obvious fact that someone had already done it."
Of Scott's efforts to fool Folger experts and have the book authenticated, "This was an attempt by you to take on the world's experts at their own expertise. You were confident that that balance had been achieved. You were, however, over-confident."
At court today Scott also admitted stealing two paintings from a Newcastle department store in 2008 - he received six-month sentences for each of those, to run concurrently with the longer terms.
I'm surprised (and gratified) at the length of this sentence.
