{"id":1037,"date":"2025-03-18T15:13:58","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T16:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/?p=1037"},"modified":"2025-03-18T23:11:36","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T23:11:36","slug":"two-men-guilty-of-stealing-4750000-golden-toilet-during-blenheim-palace-raid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/18\/two-men-guilty-of-stealing-4750000-golden-toilet-during-blenheim-palace-raid\/","title":{"rendered":"Two men guilty of stealing \u00a34,750,000 golden toilet during Blenheim Palace raid"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t{“@context”:”https:\/\/schema.org”,”@type”:”VideoObject”,”name”:”Metro.co.uk”,”duration”:”T58S”,”thumbnailUrl”:”https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2025\/02\/25\/14\/95568815-0-image-m-46_1740493560801.jpg”,”uploadDate”:”2025-02-25T14:05:15+0000″,”description”:”CCTV shown in court and released by the CPS shows the moment thieves steal a u00a32.8 million golden toilet from Blenheim Palace.”,”contentUrl”:”https:\/\/videos.metro.co.uk\/video\/met\/2025\/02\/25\/3188494752176293071\/480x270_MP4_3188494752176293071.mp4″,”height”:270,”width”:480}<\/p>\n

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class=\"metro-related-video-carousel__related-video-placeholder-thumbnail\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"metro-related-video-carousel__related-video-placeholder-headline\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metro-related-video-carousel__related-video-placeholder\">\n<div class=\"metro-related-video-carousel__related-video-placeholder-thumbnail\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"metro-related-video-carousel__related-video-placeholder-headline\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\twindow.addEventListener(‘metroVideo:relatedVideosCarouselLoaded’, function(data) {<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tif (typeof(data.detail) === ‘undefined’ || typeof(data.detail.carousel) === ‘undefined’ || typeof(data.detail.carousel.el_) === ‘undefined’) {<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\treturn;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t}<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tvar player = data.detail.carousel.el_;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tvar container = player.closest(‘.metro-video-player’);<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tvar placeholder = container.querySelector(‘.metro-video-player__up-next-placeholder’);<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tcontainer.removeChild(placeholder);<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tcontainer.classList.add(‘metro-video-player–related-videos-loaded’);<br \/>\n\t\t\t});<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Two men have been found guilty of stealing a fully-functioning \u00a34.75 million 18-carat gold toilet from Blenheim Palace.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Jones, 39, stole the toilet at the Oxfordshire country house where Sir Winston Churchill was born in the early hours of September 14, 2019.<\/p>\n<p>The day before the theft, Jones also revealed he \u2018took advantage of\u2019 the gold toilet\u2019s \u2018facilities\u2019 while at the country house.<\/p>\n<p>Asked what it was like, Jones said: \u2018Splendid.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>He visited the palace twice before the theft but had denied these were reconnaissance trips.<\/p>\n<p>Frederick Doe, 36, also known as Frederick Sines, of Winkfield, Windsor, Berkshire, was found guilty of conspiracy to transfer criminal property.<\/p>\n<p>Doe helped one of the men who pleaded guilty to carrying out the burglary, James Sheen, to sell some of the gold in the following weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Sheen, 40, from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, had already pleaded guilty to burglary.<\/p>\n<p>He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transfer criminal property and one count of transferring criminal property, at Oxford Crown Court in April 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Jones had worked as a roofer and builder for Sheen from about 2018 and was effectively Sheen\u2019s \u2018right-hand man\u2019.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"646\" height=\"483\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"article-image wp-image-22750497 lazyload\" alt=\"Fred Doe Oxford Crown Court.\" loading=\"lazy\" data-src=\"http:\/\/softnary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/SEI_244337549-75db-e1742322073842.jpg\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Fred Doe (formerly Fred Sines) seen outside Oxford Crown Court where he has been found guilty after his trial<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"646\" height=\"431\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"article-image wp-image-22749607 lazyload\" loading=\"lazy\" data-src=\"http:\/\/softnary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/SEI_198274732-8b6a.jpg\">\t<\/div><figcaption>The toilet was fully-functioning and worth \u00a34.75 million (Picture: Leon Neal\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"646\" height=\"446\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"article-image wp-image-22749606 lazyload\" alt=\"Undated handout file photo issued by Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire of damage caused after thieves stole a sculpture titled 'America', an 18-carat solid gold toilet reportedly worth ?4.8 million, by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, in September 2019 while it was featured in an art exhibition at the palace. Issue date: Tuesday April 2, 2024. PA Photo. James Sheen, 39, from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, pleaded guilty to burglary, converting or transferring criminal property and conspiracy to do the same at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday, the Crown Prosecution Service said. See PA story COURTS Blenheim. Photo credit should read: Pete Seaward\/Blenheim Palace\/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.\" loading=\"lazy\" data-src=\"http:\/\/softnary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/SEI_198286236-069d.jpg\">\t<\/div><figcaption>The damage caused after thieves stole the gold toilet (Picture: Pete Seaward\/Blenheim Palace\/PA Wire)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The toilet was created by <a data-track=\"inline-tag-auto-link_article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/tag\/italy\/\">Italian<\/a> artist Maurizio Cattelan and was a star attraction in an art exhibition when it was stolen.<\/p>\n<p>Bora Guccuk, 41, from west London, was found not guilty of the same charge.<\/p>\n<p>Doe will be sentenced on May 19. Jones and Sheen will be sentenced at a date yet to be set.<\/p>\n<p>Shan Saunders, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: \u2018This was an audacious raid which had been carefully planned and executed \u2013 but those responsible were not careful enough, leaving a trail of evidence in the form of forensics, CCTV footage and phone data.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It has been a complex case to prosecute, involving a nationwide investigation with many lines of inquiry to identify those who were subsequently charged in relation to the theft.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018While none of the gold was ever recovered \u2013 no doubt having been broken up or melted down and sold on soon after it was stolen \u2013 we are confident this prosecution has played a part in disrupting a wider crime and money laundering network.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Thames Valley Police said other people were involved in the burglary at Blenheim Palace and called for anyone with information to come forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong><strong><strong>Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"mailto:webnews@metro.co.uk\" target=\"_blank\">webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>For more stories like this, <\/strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>check our news page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{“@context”:”https:\/\/schema.org”,”@type”:”VideoObject”,”name”:”Metro.co.uk”,”duration”:”T58S”,”thumbnailUrl”:”https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2025\/02\/25\/14\/95568815-0-image-m-46_1740493560801.jpg”,”uploadDate”:”2025-02-25T14:05:15+0000″,”description”:”CCTV shown in court and released by the CPS shows the moment thieves steal a u00a32.8 million golden toilet from Blenheim Palace.”,”contentUrl”:”https:\/\/videos.metro.co.uk\/video\/met\/2025\/02\/25\/3188494752176293071\/480x270_MP4_3188494752176293071.mp4″,”height”:270,”width”:480} To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page window.addEventListener(‘metroVideo:relatedVideosCarouselLoaded’, function(data) { if (typeof(data.detail) === ‘undefined’ || typeof(data.detail.carousel) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1037"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1043,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions\/1043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}