Library thief convicted

Mr Farhad Hakimzadeh, a former British Library Reader, is due to appear at Wood Green Crown Court on Friday 21 November. Hakimzadeh has pleaded guilty to ten counts of theft from the Library, and asked for further charges to be taken into account. He has also pleaded guilty to charges of theft from the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Farhad Hakimzadeh – a businessman aged 60 years of Rutland Gardens, SW7 – used considerable skill, deceit and determination to steal leaves, plates and maps from collection items. In many instances his thefts were initially difficult to detect. The items he mutilated are mainly 16th, 17th and 18th century items, with a lesser number of 19th and a few 20th century items. The predominant subject area is the West European engagement with Mesopotamia, Persia and the Mogul [Mughal] empire (roughly the area from modern Syria to Bangladesh), and western travel and colonisation / exploration.

Theft from the British Library is an extremely rare occurrence. Because we are a research library, not a museum, we are committed to making our collections available in the interests of scholarship and research: to facilitate this an element of trust is necessary. Hakimzadeh fundamentally betrayed this trust.

The Library takes very seriously its duty to protect the collections for our users, and for the generations of researchers to come. We have zero tolerance of anyone who harms our collections and will pursue anyone who threatens them with utmost vigour. We continually review and update our security systems, and information obtained through our standard procedures played an important role in securing this conviction.

The Library has been heartened by the generous cooperation it has received during this investigation from a number of institutions and from other libraries in this country and abroad.

The successful prosecution of Hakimzadeh follows a thorough and detailed investigation by Library staff and the Metropolitan Police. This has led to the recovery of some of the items stolen by Hakimzadeh, and civil proceedings are now underway to recover further items and to seek financial compensation.

Detective Chief Inspector Dave Cobb, Metropolitan Police Service, said: "Hakimzadeh was a member of both the British Library and the Bodleian Library and he committed his crimes by looking at books in the library reading rooms and while doing so, he would carefully remove particular pages from a book and then return it in its damaged condition.

It is extremely difficult to detect the absence of these pages as Hakimzadeh took care to select material that only an expert would be able to identify, as early printed books are unique. The original owner might have commissioned additional illustrations, or pages might have been missing when the libraries acquired them.

Following the discovery of damage to one volume, an audit of Hakimzadeh's activities at the libraries then revealed the extent of his offending.

Some of the stolen pages were recovered inserted in other copies of the relevant book at his home address."

Dr Kristian Jensen, Head of British Collections at the British Library said: "The particular illustrations and pages that Hakimzadeh stole are not just valuable in themselves. These thefts have struck at the very heart of the British Library's historic collections making their loss and the vandalism that accompanied their theft especially harmful.

When they make their collections available, libraries require that a bond of trust be honoured between the reader and the institution. In return for gaining access to research material the reader agrees to treat the books he or she consults with care and respect. Under a cover of serious scholarly purpose, Hakimzadeh betrayed the trust. The violation of the collections by Hakimzadeh transcends mere monetary loss; his victims are the researchers of the future who will not be able to consult this material."

An Oxford University spokesperson said: "We are pleased the criminal case, on which we cooperated closely with the police, has been brought to a close."

For further information please contact: Ben Sanderson at the British Library Press Office – telephone +44(0)78100 56848, email: ben.sanderson@bl.uk

Notes for Editors

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most comprehensive research collection. The British Library's collections include 150 million items from every era of written human history beginning with Chinese oracle bones dating from 300 BC, right up to the latest e-journals. Further information is available on the Library's website at www.bl.uk