Millionaire facing jail for stealing book pages

Published on Thursday 20 November 2008 22:29

A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE businessman faces jail after admitting stealing rare pages and plates from books in the British Library.

Harvard-educated Farhad Hakimzadeh, 60, used a Stanley knife to cut pages, plates and maps from up to 150 historic tomes.

The Iranian businessman carried out the thefts at the British Library and the Bodleian in Oxford between 1997 and 2003.

Hakimzadeh, chief executive of the Iran Heritage Foundation and a respected scholar and author, smuggled the knife in to cut out apparently random pages from books dating from the 16th century.

Experts say he may have caused more than 1 million of damage.

Hakimzadeh – who first came to Britain after the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1979 – is believed to have chosen places in the libraries out of sight of CCTV cameras to remove the pages. Staff patrols and extra CCTV cameras have been introduced since.

He pleaded guilty to 14 counts of theft earlier this year and is due to be sentenced at Wood Green crown court, London, today.