THERE was a whiff of the Highlands about a crown court yesterday, as a flamboyant book dealer accused of stealing a £3m Shakespeare folio arrived in trademark bizarre style.

In a tribute to Macbeth and Bonnie Prince Charlie, Raymond Scott was escorted to Durham Crown Court in a horse-drawn carriage, wearing a tartan kilt and drinking a bottle of Drambuie.

The 52-year-old was accompanied by his researcher, a bodyguard named Tiny, a bagpipe player and a Frank Sinatra tribute act, who Mr Scott joined for a pavement rendition of My Way.

Speaking from the carriage, Mr Scott said: “I’m wearing the tartan of Bonnie Prince Charlie. I’m allowed to wear it because I’m a faint member of his bloodline.

“I recommended that for today I might have a haggisflavoured Pot Noodle, but the people at Golden Wonder did not like that.

“I had thought about Julius Caesar, but I don’t look nice in a toga and it’s a bugger trying to find a chariot.

“It’s a rather dull, grey world, all in all, and I like to add a little colour. Even if I was accused of stealing a tin of corned beef from Tesco, I’d still arrive in such a fashion.”

Later, Mr Scott recited a lengthy excerpt from Macbeth by heart.

Mr Scott, of Sandford Close, Wingate, County Durham, is accused of stealing a 1623 Shakespeare First Folio from Durham University in 1998. He faces charges including theft and handling stolen goods.

The investigation began after he walked into the Folger Shakespeare Library, in Washington DC, with a Shakespeare book, asking for it to be verified as genuine.

Experts soon suspected it was the Durham volume.

In court, Mr Scott was asked to confirm his identity, to which he replied: “Aye”.

Charges were not put to him.

At the end of a 25-minute hearing, Judge Richard Lowden, who also quoted from Macbeth, adjourned the case for six weeks.

Mr Scott has regularly said he was “very much not guilty”, claiming the book he took to Washington DC and the Durham tome were not the same.

A trial could be held at Newcastle Crown Court next June.