THE exuberance and swagger of self-styled international playboy Raymond Scott had vanished. He stood in the dock, silent and defeated.

As Judge Richard Lowden sentenced him to eight years in prison for handling and removing a priceless Shakespeare First Folio from the country, his gaze remained firmly fixed between his feet.

The judge described the book, stolen from Durham University, as a “quintessentially English treasure”.

It was later badly damaged in an attempt to hide its identity – something he called cultural vandalism.

Scott was taken down to the cells at Newcastle Crown Court without comment and without flair; and a bizarre two years in the limelight was finally at an end.

For Raymond Scott, 53, of Manor Close, Wingate, County Durham, tried to convince the world it was a conspiracy against him.

He said Durham University, Durham Police, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the FBI and perhaps even his beloved fiancee – the beautiful 21-year-old Havana nightclub dancer Heidi Garcia Rios – had all played their part in orchestrating his downfall.

But it was all a sham.

The vintage champagne, Cuban cigars, silver Ferrari, designer sunglasses and exotic holidays were paid for by running up nearly £100,000 of credit card debts.

He was not the Che Guevara freedom fighter of one of his previous public appearances – he was a fantasist, an alcoholic and a petty thief, who lived in a two-up two-down former council house with his elderly mother in Washington, Wearside, and whose legitimate income consisted of income support and carer’s allowance.

Having first appeared in court in 1977, Scott did so regularly from 1986 onwards, chalking up 25 convictions – mostly for theft.

Even yesterday, he also stood to be sentenced for stealing two paintings, worth about £500 each, from Fenwick’s, in Newcastle. He admitted both offences, and was jailed for six months, to run alongside his other sentence.

The Shakespeare First Folio, printed in 1623, has been called the most important printed work in the English language.

Durham University’s copy was stolen from an exhibition in Palace Green Library in December 1998, along with six other books and manuscripts, which have never been found.

It remained missing for nearly a decade, until Scott produced it at the Folger Shakespeare Library, in Washington, US, in June 2008, claiming to have acquired it in Cuba.

He denied his book was the Durham folio, but, despite the volume having been severely damaged, US experts quickly recognised it and called the authorities.

Scott was arrested in a raid on his home three weeks later.

Judge Lowden said he had shown overwhelming dishonesty, entered into an elaborate scam and wanted to sell the book to feed a “ludicrously extravagant international playboy lifestyle”.

Durham University said the damage to the book was akin to taking a knife to Constable’s The Hay Wain, and welcomed the sentence.

The book will now form the centrepiece of a university exhibition next year.

Scott was given six years in prison after he was earlier found guilty of handling the stolen book and two years for taking it out of the UK. He had been cleared of stealing the folio.

Afterwards, Detective Constable Tim Lerner said Scott was not as he portrayed himself, but a petty criminal out of his depth.

When asked about his colourful public appearances, Scott often quoted Shakespeare: “All the world’s a stage.”

As the court door quietly closed behind him yesterday, one could almost see the curtain fall also.