TV antiques expert back in court on theft charges
Published March 12th, 2007
Kentnews - An antiques expert who regularly appears on BBC’s Bargain Hunt has denied stealing two valuable paintings from a pensioner and is awaiting trial by jury.
Michael Hogben, 54, the star of BBC shows Bargain Hunt, Real Deal and Auction Man, appeared at Canterbury Crown Court on Monday charged with stealing two paintings worth thousands of pounds from a pensioner.
Hogben spoke only to confirm his name and address and plead not guilty to one count of theft.
The auctioneer, of Hythe, is accused of stealing a portrait and landscape painting from an elderly woman’s home between June and November 2005.
It is alleged that the flamboyant TV star was invited to the pensioner’s house on the back of his TV success to value a number of pieces of antique furniture, but ended up taking away two paintings after telling the woman that he would get them valued for her.
Prosecutor Anna Kachingwe previously told the court at a hearing in
December: “In recent years he has become a television celebrity advising contestants in shows such as Bargain Hunt screened by the BBC.
“The defendant took a particular interest in two of the paintings - one a portrait, the other a landscape.
“He offered to have them valued by an expert.”
She claimed Hogben then took the paintings away and that the woman had not seen them since, adding: “She has not received any money for them.”
He was released on unconditional bail until his next appearance on
April 30. A trial date has been set for the week beginning May 8.
Hogben studied art and has spent 20 years in the antiques trade specialising in Victorian oil and watercolour paintings, and has been an auctioneer for 15 years at his own auction house in Folkestone.
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