A “lookalike” of Friends actor David Schwimmer has denied a string of fraud and theft offences.
Iranian Abdulah Husseini made a brief appearance via a video link from HMP Wormwood Scrubs on Friday to deny the charges.
Judge Beverley Lunt, hearing the case at Preston Crown Court, said: “Is this the Ross from Friends case?” at which point the defendant started to giggle and put his hand over his mouth.
Joe Allman, prosecuting, replied: “It is the one with the doppelganger, your honour.”
The 36-year-old defendant, from Tehran, who had a shaved head and wore grey tracksuit bottoms and a blue shirt, pleaded not guilty to the theft of a wallet in Blackpool on 20 September last year.
He also denied five fraud offences by allegedly using or attempting to use a stolen Halifax bank card on 17 occasions in shops between 20 September and 5 November last year.
Social media users first pointed out the likeness of the defendant to Schwimmer’s character Ross Geller in the popular US sitcom when police in Blackpool posted an image of a man leaving a restaurant and carrying what appeared to be a carton of beer cans.
Schwimmer later responded to the picture by posting a video to his Twitter account that showed him scurrying through a convenience store carrying a carton of beer before looking up furtively at a CCTV camera.
There was no application for bail by the defendant, from Spencer Road, Slough, west London, who is currently serving a jail sentence.
A trial date for the Blackpool theft and fraud offences was set for 4 July.