AS bathroom breaks go, it was a quickie. Five men took just five minutes to steal a £4.75million solid gold toilet from Blenheim Palace, the Oxfordshire birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill.
The gang smashed their way into the stately home with sledge- hammers in the early hours.
Their goal was the 98kg 18-carat gold lavatory, an installation by conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan called America that was installed in the palace just a week earlier.
The masked raiders ripped the working WC from the wall, causing water to cascade from cut pipes, then rolled it out of the palace and into a waiting VW Golf getaway car.
But within ten days of the audacious raid on September 14, 2019, police were being told the name of the man believed to be responsible: James ‘Jimmy’ Sheen.
Detective Superintendent Bruce Riddell said “community intelligence” — code for being ratted out — provided Sheen’s name.
The head of specialist operations at Thames Valley Police added: “He went to hospital the day after for an injury to his hand, which we think he got from going through the window.
“And as the investigations unfolded, thousands of the evidence exhibits were linked to him.
“On his phones we found voice messages of him trying to sell the gold.
“Then we found traces of gold in his pockets, and in a flatbed lorry there was a pair of gloves containing fragments of the gold and his DNA.”
‘Evidence overwhelming’
The career criminal — a member of the traveller community — will have another four years to think about where his heist has landed him, added to the 19 years he is already doing inside.
Jailing him at Oxford Crown Court yesterday, Judge Ian Pringle blasted: “This bold and brazen heist took no more than five-and-a-half minutes to complete. ‘America’ has never been seen again.”
Sheen was out of jail on licence when he planned the Blenheim raid.
He had received 14 years in 2010 when an innocent couple got caught in the spray from a shotgun during a shoot-out in Coventry with a rival traveller clan.
Builder Sheen, 40, ran a burglary gang from his slick end-of-terrace home on an Oxford council estate.
They broke into the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket in May 2020, making off with the Ascot Gold Vase and two Doncaster cups, and stole tractors and other farm equipment, making an estimated £2.6million within a year.
Sheen also conned elderly customers out of hundreds of thousands of pounds for dodgy building work.
Yesterday Oxford Crown Court heard how Sheen’s burglaries had grown more bold.
His lawyer, Michael Neofytou, described the raid as “crude”, adding: “It didn’t have the hallmarks of a sophisticated heist.”
The burglary leader pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle.
The evidence against James Sheen was so overwhelming he had no choice but to plead guilty.
Det Supt Riddell
Co-defendant Michael Jones, 39, who had worked for Sheen’s building company, was locked up for 27 months for helping plan the raid.
The roofer — first convicted at the age of 13 — was found guilty in March of burglary.
Yesterday, a judge said he wasn’t satisfied Jones was one of the five masked men who actually took the golden loo.
He had denied that a visit to see the sparkly toilet the day before it was stolen was a reconnaissance trip, and described the experience of using it for real as “splendid”.
Sheen and four others smashed through two locked gates in a pair of stolen cars.
They then broke a side window and splintered two more doors before prising the 18-carat loo from the wall.
Sheen’s DNA was found on one of the hammers that was left behind.
Red-faced palace bosses admitted that the exhibit — which had been installed at Blenheim days earlier — was not covered by CCTV.
Chief executive Dominic Hare later told the BBC: “We took possession of this precious item and managed to lose it within a day.”
Cops found a mountain of dodgy messages on Sheen’s phone.
Two days after the raid, as he was laid up in hospital having an operation on an infected hand, Sheen texted gold dealer pal Fred Doe: “I got something right up your path.”
The pair tried to flog the loot in London’s Hatton Garden area.
Det Supt Riddell said: “The evidence against James Sheen was so overwhelming he had no choice but to plead guilty.”
None of the gold has ever been recovered — but cops believe the toilet was broken up between the five thieves.
Prosecutors say Sheen had tried to sell the gold to Bora Guccuk, a boyfriend of glam Instagram model Chloe Othen, but the deal collapsed.
Hatton Garden jeweller Guccuk, 41, was cleared of money laundering in March.
Doe, 36, was found guilty but spared jail last month for his part in trying to sell on the metal.
Sheen’s WhatsApps suggest he pawned his share in Birmingham, pocketing £520,000.
Det Supt Bruce Riddell is now focusing on recouping Sheen’s ill-gotten gains.
He said: “Trading Standards have already identified almost £200,000 worth of assets that they’re in the process of recovering.”
The seasoned cop is also trying to bring the three other members of the five-strong heist gang to justice.
He appealed for anyone with information about the outstanding raiders to come forward, adding: “Relationships and allegiances change over the years.”
