The Guardian - William Jacques sent to prison for three-and-a-half years for thefts worth £40,000 from Royal Horticultural Society library. A serial book thief who used a Cambridge degree and a tweed jacket as a "shabby cloak of respectability" to mask his deeds was jailed for three-and-a-half years today for stealing books worth £40,000 from the Royal Horticultural Society's library. There was, as the prosecution pointed out, little sophistication in the strategy employed by William Jacques, who had already been given a four-year sentence for plundering £1m-worth of rare books in the late 1990s. Armed with his scholarly jacket and a pair of glasses, the man dubbed "tome raider" began frequenting the RHS's Lindley library in Vincent Square, central London, and signing in under the false name of Santoro. But his regular visits and limited wardrobe soon caught the eye of staff, who grew suspicious.

On one occasion, Southwark crown court heard, the defendant "was seen to place something inside his jacket and walk away with his left arm stiff against his jacket as if holding something".

"It was rather crude," noted Gino Connor, prosecuting. "But it was effective."

He also told the jury that Jacques always signed in at the library, when he had both arms free. But he never signed out.

Link to Story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/20/tome-raider-william-jacques-jailed