Comedian Barry Hilton threw a tantrum inside a Port Elizabeth art gallery before allegedly making off with paintings worth more than R10 000 to settle an unclaimed debt, the Port Elizabeth Herald reported on Friday.
According to the report, this information emerged when Hilton appeared in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court on Thursday on charges of robbery and crimen injuria after the incident on Christmas Eve.
Hilton was reportedly arrested at his home and taken into custody at the Walmer police station following the incident at the art gallery in the King’s Court Centre in Buffelsfontein Road.
Hilton was not asked to plead when he was formally charged in court on Thursday morning, the report said.
The Herald reported that, in her statement to the police, the owner of the art gallery said Hilton had walked into her shop while she was busy with a client and demanded to speak to her husband.
When the woman replied that her husband was not there, Hilton allegedly told her that her husband owed him money, which the woman denied.
He then took some paintings off the wall and carried them to the parking lot, where Hilton allegedly urged people not to support the gallery.
He allegedly shouted defamatory remarks about the gallery and its owners.
A source, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the Herald that Hilton had signed a few autographs before allegedly leaving with the paintings.
It is alleged that Hilton took paintings valued at R10 600 for the outstanding debt allegedly owed to him, the report said.
Hilton declined to comment when the Herald phoned him on Thursday.
He and his wife, Sandy, denied a claim of theft when the Herald contacted him on Wednesday. Aside from saying that his client found the matter ”very amusing”, Hilton’s attorney, Vinesh Naidu, would reveal nothing, the report said.
According to the report, staff at the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court were surprised to see the comedian on the wrong side of the law.
One court employee entertained his colleagues by repeating lines from a humorous cider commercial in which Hilton plays a barman.
However, one official, who did not want to be named, said: ”I bet he [Hilton] does not find this funny,” said the report. — Sapa