Blenheim Palace gold toilet thieves sentenced

Two men who stole an 18-carat gold toilet from Blenheim Palace in an audacious five-minute raid in 2019 have been sentenced.

Forty-year-old James Sheen, a career criminal who masterminded the theft, received a four year prison sentence at Oxford Crown Court today.

Michael Jones, 39, who carried out reconnaissance trips to Blenheim Palace before the raid, was sentenced to 27 months' imprisonment.

Sheen pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges of burglary, conspiring to convert or transfer criminal property, and converting or transferring criminal property.

A jury found Jones guilty of burglary in March this year following a trial. Fred Doe, who Sheen contacted about selling the stolen gold, was prosecuted at the same time and was convicted of conspiracy to convert or transfer criminal property. 

He was sentenced in May to 21 months' imprisonment, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 240 hours unpaid work.

Following today's sentence, Shan Saunders for the Crown Prosecution Service said: “This was an extraordinary case in many respects. It is not every day that we prosecute high-value burglaries of stately homes, let alone the audacious theft of an 18-carat gold toilet. 

“However, given the level of planning that enabled the raid to be carried out within five minutes, it was unusual that the offenders left such a trail of evidence in their wake. From phone messages to DNA traces found in a stolen car and on the sledgehammer used in the burglary, this wealth of evidence ultimately enabled us to secure their convictions.

“We reviewed nearly 30,000 pages of evidence as we built our case, including a significant amount of material from James Sheen’s phone. We examined text messages, images, and hours of voice recordings, many of which implicated other individuals. Sheen and those he communicated with used code and slang, and it required careful analysis to decipher these messages to understand how the raid was carried out and how the stolen gold was disposed of.

“Three of the individuals involved in this crime have now been sentenced, and we believe this prosecution has played a part in disrupting a wider crime and money laundering network.”