A MAN accused of stealing a valuable volume of the works of Shakespeare was today charged with theft.

Fifty-one-year-old book and antiques dealer Raymond Scott was initially arrested on suspicion of the theft of the 385-year-old first folio last July.

Raymond Scott at Durham Police Station

He was bailed pending further inquiries and he was formally charged with the theft of the £3m-valued book, and an alternative of handling stolen goods, when he returned to Durham City Police Station today.

Mr Scott, now of Wingate, County Durham, was also charged with two further counts of theft and two alternatives of handling stolen goods, relating to a driving licence, credit cards and a Filofax found during a search of his former home, in the Ayton area of Washington, last summer.

The 900-page volume at the centre of the investigation was taken from Durham University's Palace Green Library, where it was on display in December 1998.

It came to light last year when a man presented a book to the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC, in the USA, last year, claiming he bought it in Cuba.

Experts at the library contacted the police believing it was the stolen book, and this led to the arrest of Mr Scott and the subsequent return of the book.

The book, published in 1623, is the earliest compilation of the works of Shakespeare and is one of only 250 surviving copies.

Mr Scott, who arrived to answer bail at the police station in a stretch limousine today, claimed that the book which turned up at the library in Washington DC last year is not the same copy that was stolen from the Durham library.

He will appear on the theft and handling charges before North Durham Magistrates Court, on Tuesday February 10.