Two males accountable over £4.8m Blenheim Palace heist

A gang has been convicted over the robbery of a £4.8m gold rest room from an artwork exhibition at Blenheim Palace.

Thieves smashed their method in and ripped out the purposeful rest room, hours after a glamorous release celebration on the Oxfordshire stately house in September 2019.

Michael Jones used to be discovered accountable of making plans the housebreaking. Fred Doe used to be convicted of conspiring to promote the gold, whilst Bora Guccuk used to be cleared of the similar price.

The BBC can now expose the total felony historical past of the heist gang’s kingpin James Sheen. He has been jailed no less than six instances since 2005 and has led organised crime teams that made greater than £5m from fraud and robbery – cash government have in large part did not recuperate.

5 males had been observed on CCTV wearing out the heist, however most effective two – Sheen and Jones – have ever been stuck.

Inside days the art work, referred to as The us, were damaged up and bought on, the court docket heard. Not one of the gold has been recovered.

Sheen, from Oxford, pleaded accountable final yr after police discovered his DNA on the scene and gold fragments in his clothes. He used to be described in court docket because the “commonplace denominator” – having been charged with making plans and moving felony assets, in addition to housebreaking.

The 40-year-old, who has earlier convictions for fraud, robbery and a firearms offence, used to be arrested 4 weeks after the heist, on suspicion of making plans it, however he used to be launched on bail.

He persevered his crime spree, together with a identical raid 8 months later on the Nationwide Horseracing Museum in Newmarket, Suffolk, the place he stole gold and silver trophies price £400,000, none of that have ever been recovered.

The court docket heard how the crowd had meticulously researched the housebreaking at Blenheim Palace – a UNESCO International Heritage Web site to the north of Oxford.

Jones, 39, from Oxford, visited the palace for a 2d time the day prior to the heist, and took photos of the golden rest room, a lock at the door and a close-by window. Later that day, the artist Maurizio Cattelan hosted his release celebration.

A couple of hours after visitors left, the crowd used two stolen vehicles to ram via palace gates, break a window, wrench the bathroom from its fittings and roll it out of the construction, the court docket heard.

The BBC has came upon they exploited a sequence of safety flaws on the palace – the place there have been no guards patrolling the exhibition or the grounds. In a single day, the art work used to be locked at the back of a skinny picket door and used to be now not monitored by means of CCTV.

Exterior CCTV confirmed the crowd had been within for not up to 3 mins. Palace leader govt Dominic Hare advised the BBC the “details talk for themselves”.

“We took ownership of this valuable merchandise and controlled to lose it inside of an afternoon,” he mentioned, since the thieves merely “drove in the course of the gates, smashed in the course of the window, they picked it up and so they went”.

Police arrived inside of 5 mins of the alarm sounding however the thieves had already left.

As a murals, the bathroom weighed 98kg (216lbs) and used to be insured for $6m (£4.8m). Gold costs on the time would have intended the steel on my own used to be price £2.8m, the court docket used to be advised.

It isn’t identified precisely when the crowd broke the bathroom into smaller items, or whether or not they melted the gold themselves. However the court docket heard inside of two days of the heist, Sheen used to be searching for patrons, providing gold at about £25,500 in keeping with kilo.

He contacted Fred Doe, and, in a sequence of coded voice messages, requested for lend a hand in promoting it.

Doe, 36, from Windsor and sometimes called Fred Sines, admitted looking to lend a hand Sheen promote the gold however mentioned he had no thought it used to be stolen.

Jurors heard the pair organized to satisfy with jeweller Bora Guccuk, and visited him at his store in Hatton Lawn – London’s well-known jewelry quarter, negotiating a worth for approximately 5kg of gold.

Mr Guccuk, 41, from west London, denied he knew it used to be stolen and the court docket heard negotiations broke down and no sale came about. He used to be cleared by means of the jury.

Alternatively, Sheen admitted promoting one of the crucial stolen gold in Birmingham, inside of a fortnight of the heist.

{A photograph} discovered by means of police on his telephone confirmed a service bag full of money, which used to be despatched on WhatsApp with the message “520,000 ha ha ha”.

4 weeks after the heist – on 16 October 2019 – Sheen used to be arrested. However he used to be launched on bail and over the following 8 months used to be interested by no less than 12 extra crimes, together with the housebreaking on the Nationwide Horseracing Museum.

He used to be most effective later charged when police showed his DNA on a sledgehammer discovered within the palace, and in a stolen automobile deserted close by. Fragments of gold had been additionally discovered a while in a while clothes at his house.

Thames Valley Police mentioned the forensic research of Sheen’s clothes and DNA used to be “difficult paintings, which frequently takes time”, including that because of this there used to be now not sufficient proof to price him on the time of arrest and so they may now not proceed maintaining him in custody.

His offending most effective got here to an finish when he used to be recalled to jail in June 2020 for breaching the phrases of an previous free up. He were set free of jail on licence in 2017, midway via a 14-year sentence for his position within the taking pictures of 2 blameless bystanders.

Sheen and his brother had chased any other circle of relatives in the course of the streets of Coventry in 2009, firing a shotgun from the window in their Vary Rover.

A tender couple on their method house from an evening out had been stuck within the crossfire. One nonetheless has pellets lodged of their face. The sufferers mentioned they had been “haunted” by means of that day greater than 15 years later.

In a observation to the BBC, the sufferers and their households mentioned Sheen used to be “a significant risk to the general public and will have to by no means be allowed out of jail once more”.

Regardless of spending about part of the previous two decades in jail, Sheen has in my view made about £2m from his crimes, now not together with the golden rest room heist. Gangs he led have made greater than £5m benefit, consistent with archived court docket information accessed by means of the BBC.

Within the months prior to and after the Blenheim heist, Sheen used to be main any other team of thieves that made greater than £2.6m by means of blowing up money machines, stealing high-value farm equipment and different thefts around the south and east of England, together with the Newmarket museum raid.

He used to be sentenced to 17 years for those offences in 2022, greater than a yr prior to he used to be charged with the Blenheim heist. After that trial at Oxford Crown Courtroom, a pass judgement on dominated Sheen had in my view made £900,000 from the crimes – however used to be ordered to pay again simply £1.

Thames Valley Police mentioned it acquired a confiscation order for a “nominal sum” of £1, which allowed a “parallel monetary investigation” to be performed. It mentioned that – 5 years after the crimes – monetary investigations had been “actively ongoing… for a vital quantity in property”.

Former house secretary David Blunkett mentioned Sheen used to be “creating a monkey of the machine”, including, “we will’t permit that to proceed”.

In 2002, Lord Blunkett offered the Proceeds of Crime Act – a flagship Labour coverage that used to be intended to turn that crime didn’t pay by means of giving police and courts new powers to recuperate criminals’ property.

However the peer mentioned the act used to be failing, and believed it used to be as a result of police, enforcement companies and the judiciary have by no means been given ok coaching or investment to correctly put in force the legislation.

“The one factor that can deter a prolific wrongdoer who is doing really well out of the proceeds of crime is to get the ones proceeds again, it is so simple as that,” he mentioned.

Following the verdicts, Shan Saunders of the Crown Prosecution Provider mentioned the raid were “sparsely deliberate and carried out”.

“However the ones accountable weren’t cautious sufficient, leaving a path of proof within the type of forensics, CCTV photos and call information,” he added.

“Whilst not one of the gold used to be ever recovered – for sure having been damaged up or melted down and bought on quickly after it used to be stolen – we’re assured this prosecution has performed a component in disrupting a much wider crime and cash laundering community.”

Det Supt Bruce Riddell of Thames Valley Police mentioned it were a “advanced investigation”.

“It’s transparent that Sheen has just one intent, and that’s to do no matter he can to thieve cash and assets irrespective of the affect it has on others and communities.

“Jones used to be obviously willing to help Sheen within the housebreaking, wearing out the recces on his behalf and it’s our case that he benefitted financially from the crime and we imagine he additionally used to be provide on the raid.”

Figures acquired by means of the BBC confirmed Sheen’s case used to be now not an remoted instance.

We requested each and every police pressure in England and Wales for his or her 10 largest proceeds of crime investigations from 2024 the place there were convictions. Thirty forces replied, offering a snapshot of 300 high-value instances.

In general, within the 300 instances, criminals had made greater than £300m – however were ordered to pay off simply 10% of that determine. Many that had made hundreds of thousands of kilos from crime had been ordered to pay again simply tens of hundreds – frequently as low as £1.

The House Place of job mentioned its felony asset restoration machine used to be ceaselessly reviewed, including that the Crime and Policing Invoice – which is being regarded as by means of Parliament – would “bolster the present machine” and “support the restoration price of property”.

It mentioned when police may now not discover a felony’s property, courts may grant confiscation orders for a “nominal sum” – frequently £1 – however this might be higher if property had been ever exposed.

Thames Valley Police mentioned it used to be dedicated to “bringing offenders to justice” and had performed a “thorough and intensive investigation” into the Blenheim heist.

It added {that a} “monetary investigation will likely be performed along our companions to recuperate any property from the robbery”, however mentioned this is able to most effective start now the trial had completed.

Sheen, Jones and Doe will likely be sentenced at a later date.

Further reporting by means of Jonathan Eden and Mary O’Reilly