The case against two men accused of a £50,000 blackmail against a member of the Royal Family over gay sex claims is a "farce", jurors have been told.
Ronald Thwaites QC said the evidence against Ian Strachan and Sean McGuigan was "insubstantial, insignificant, and incomplete".
Their attempts to sell a tape featuring comments about the royal were no more than "buying and selling in the real world", Mr Thwaites told the Old Bailey.
Jurors were being asked to convict on the basis of a "shrug of the shoulders" during a police sting operation at a London hotel, he added.
Strachan and McGuigan were arrested following the meeting in September last year with a man they thought was a royal aide but was in fact an undercover officer.
The men were trying to sell eight hours of recordings featuring claims about a mystery royal, witness A, by an employee, witness D, the court has heard.
Strachan had previously tried to hawk the material to newspapers but failed to sell the story, jurors have been told.
Strachan, 31, of Imperial Wharf, Fulham, south-west London, and McGuigan, 41, of Latchmere Road, Battersea, south London, both deny demanding money with menaces.
In his closing speech to jurors, Mr Thwaites, defending McGuigan, said Strachan was a "Walter Mitty" type fantasist who believed he was close to the royals. McGuigan, he said "may be unwise in his friendships".
Mr Thwaites said attempts to sell the tapes by claiming newspapers had already made offers for them was no more than "buying and selling in the real world".
