Harpist 'fraud after drug threat'

Former royal harpist Jemima Phillips, pictured with the Prince of Wales

A former royal harpist was forced into fraud by a friend of her boyfriend who threatened to expose her drug use, a jury has been told.

Jemima Phillips said the man joked: "Give my regards to Prince Charles" after he told her to forge a signature, Gloucester Crown Court heard.

Ms Phillips, 28, originally from Ebbw Vale, Blaenau Gwent, denies burglary but admits using a stolen pass book.

Her boyfriend, William Davies, 41, of Cheltenham, Glos, also denies burglary.

Ms Phillips, who played at the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles, also denies an alternative charge of handling stolen property.

Mr Davies has admitted four counts of handling stolen goods, which the prosecution said were not acceptable as alternatives. He claims he was a handler but not a burglar.

The prosecution claims Ms Phillips, of Mork, Glos, was a willing participant in the raids on four houses in the Forest of Dean between 22-28 May.

He was just going on about the Royal Family thing and phoning the papers up and telling them I'm a drug addict What Jemima Phillips is said to have told police

She admits using a pass book stolen in one of the burglaries to try to obtain £500 cash from the Nationwide building society branch in Monmouth, Monmouthshire, on the day she was giving a music lesson in the town.

'Sorry riff-raff'

The jury was read extracts from Phillips' police interview in which she said she had been "nursing" Mr Davies through detox while she herself was "clean" [of heroin].

She said: "Basically how I met Will [Davies] was just on the street a few months ago. I had been using. I don't inject or anything, just smoke."

"I've been buying his medication for him to get clean.

"Someone at the day centre with him was sort-of pressuring me into going and taking this Nationwide book and getting 500 quid out.

"He came out with one of these mates of his and he [the mate] started talking about [how] I worked for the Royal Family for four years and I'd done a lot with my career and he started telling all the dealers and sorry riff-raff about it.

"This guy took me to one side and was like putting loads of pressure on me and Will needed money to pay his rent. I shouldn't have done it.

"He was just going on about the Royal Family thing and phoning the papers up and telling them I'm a drug addict.

"I played at their wedding [Charles and Camilla] and I was on GMTV and Richard and Judy, and on all the news across the world and the papers. He wasn't very nice.

"He said, 'Give my regards to Prince Charles' or maybe he would himself. He was being very aggressive. I didn't know if he was going to hit me or smash my head against the window."

She added: "I believe everything they say [men]. That's my weakness. I didn't know what to do. I was scared and I'm sorry I did it."

Clarence House

The court heard that Ms Phillips met her boyfriend at the beginning of the year.

She said: "I did love him. I got an engagement ring but obviously he doesn't love me doing all that and bringing all that [stolen goods] into my house."

She said she earned "good money" from her harpist work and had no need to resort to burglary to obtain funds.

Ms Phillips is a Royal College of Music graduate and a former semi-finalist in the BBC's Young Musician of the Year competition.

She has performed at Balmoral and Clarence House as well as playing at a reception hosted by the Queen for the 2012 London Olympics bid.

The court has heard that when Ms Phillips was arrested, she had been driving her Ford Galaxy with items from the four burglaries inside it.

The trial continues.