BREAKING NEWS Son of multimillionaire caravan magnate who tried to sell £4.8m golden toilet after it was stolen from Blenheim Palace in midnight raid avoids prison

The son of a multimillionaire caravan magnate has avoided jail for trying to sell a share of a £4.8m golden toilet snatched from Blenheim Palace in a dramatic five-minute raid.
Fred Doe, 37, was convicted following a trial in March of attempting to broker the sale of around 10 kilos of the stolen gold on behalf of burglar and family friend James Sheen, 40.
Formerly known as Fred Sines, Doe is the son of multimillionaire caravan magnate Maurice 'Fred' Sines - who has been accused by Irish authorities of being an ally of the notorious Kinahan organised crime clan.
The 18-carat golden toilet was an artwork called 'America' by satirist Maurizio Cattelan and had been plumbed in at Blenheim Palace for visitors to use at an exhibition in September 2019.
But in the early hours of September 14 - just two days after the toilet went on display - a gang of five men came screeching into the grounds of Winston Churchill's birthplace in two stolen cars.
Extraordinary CCTV captured the unfolding raid as three of the men smashed their way through a window with sledgehammers and crowbars and emerged just minutes later with the golden toilet. No trace has ever been found.
Within hours of the heist, married father-of-four Doe, who lives in a mansion near Ascot racecourse, messaged Sheen to say he knew about the stolen gold and could help him.
He then approached a jeweller in the Hatton Garden area and arranged for him to value Sheen's gold, but the sale collapsed. The jeweller, Bora Guccuk, was acquitted at trial of laundering the stolen wares.
Judge Ian Pringle KC told a sentencing hearing at Oxford Crown Court today that the value of the gold that Doe was trying to sell was likely worth between £250,000 and £260,000.
Doe, dressed in a white jumper and grey trousers, sat in the dock with two enormous Sports Direct holdalls at his side. He was supported in court by his father and other family.
The judge sentenced Doe to 21 months, suspended for two years, after accepting that he had strong personal mitigation due to his wife's poor health and the wellbeing of his children.
His family clapped and yelled 'yes!' as the judge announced the sentence would be suspended.
Sheen and fellow burglar Michael Jones, 39, are due to be sentenced over their role in the raid next month.
Doe became involved in the conspiracy when he heard Sheen - whom he knew through the traveller community - had snatched the toilet and offered to use his extensive contacts in Hatton Garden to sell the stolen gold.
His father previously told the Mail that he believed authorities were only targeting his son as 'pay back' because they had failed to bring him down over his alleged links to the Kinahans.
Doe had contacted Guccuk, who ran a jewellery shop called Pacha of London in Hatton Garden, within hours of the burglary and set in motion an attempt to sell Sheen's share of the gold.
The middle man gave evidence over several days during the trial and told jurors that he had no idea the gold was stolen - and never would have got involved with the 'idiot' Sheen if he did.
Crispin Aylett KC, defending Doe, told the court today that he was 'a bit-part player who succeeded only in delaying James Sheen in converting his gold into cash'.
'The actual extent of Mr Doe's involvement was to introduce Mr Sheen to Bora Guccuck and Bora Guccuk was unable to come up with the money and, as we know, Mr Sheen took his gold to Birmingham and boasted about the money he made,' Mr Aylett said.
The barrister suggested that Doe's 'good nature' had been taken advantage of by those involved in the conspiracy.
Sheen, who pleaded guilty to burglary in April last year, bragged in a message to Doe that he had made £520,000 from selling his share of the gold to an unidentified jeweller in Birmingham.
His message was accompanied by a picture showing a large pile of cash.
Questions have mounted for police over their failure to snare the three other members of the burglary gang, despite one man being heavily linked to the burglary throughout the trial.
An individual named in court as Carl Davies was said to be the first person to contact Doe about the stolen gold and he later went with Sheen to Birmingham when he sold his share.
He also lived in a caravan park where cell site data placed Sheen's phone just minutes after the burglary.
'Carl Davies seems to be in this up to his neck,' Crispin Aylett KC, representing Doe, told the court during his closing speech in March.
'At very least there is evidence of his telephone going to Birmingham.
'Why isn't he in the dock?'
Mr Aylett said it was 'a somewhat unsatisfactory state of affairs' that the other burglars had 'filled their boots', while the police were left unable to 'flush them out'.
None of the gold bullion merchants who bought the stolen gold have been charged and the ultimate fate of the gold remains a mystery.
Doe's father was linked to the Kinahan clan in evidence submitted to Ireland's High Court by its Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB).
He was said to be particularly close to senior gang member called Liam Byrne, with whom he has been photographed on a sunshine holiday.
Doe Sr was also pictured among the VIP mourners at the funeral of Byrne's brother David, who was shot dead in 2016 by a hitman from the rival gang, at a Dublin boxing match weigh-in.
He furiously denied having anything to do with the world of organised crime when he spoke to the Mail in March - claiming he was being persecuted just for being friends with the Kinahans.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Times

an hour ago

• Times

Palestine Action group shows no signs of slowing down

'We are tired of being ignored. It is up to all of us to stop this complicity' were the words that launched Palestine Action almost five years ago. Founded by Huda Ammori, who has Palestinian and Iraqi heritage, and Richard Barnard, a veteran left-wing activist, the fledgling group said direct action should be taken against Elbit Systems, a weapons manufacturer that they claim 'profits from Israel's war crimes'. Two months later, in September 2020, they did just that. Activists occupied a factory in Shenstone, in Staffordshire, smashing windows, drilling holes into ceilings, throwing air conditioning units to the ground and dousing the building in red paint. The demonstration marked the start of co-ordinated attempts to damage both the defence firm facilities and finances across the country, which have propelled the group on a path towards proscription. Throughout 2021 Palestine Action widened its activities, occupying a drone factory in Leicester. The occupation lasted six days, and ten arrests were made for conspiracy to commit criminal damage and aggravated trespass. The defendants were cleared after the trial judge instructed the jury to consider the common law defence of Necessity. After launching their Scottish branch, they targeted Thales, another defence firm. Having infiltrated its Glasgow facility in 2022, the activists allegedly caused more than £1 million of damage. Five were jailed after members of the group threw a smoke bomb into an area where staff were being evacuated. Protesters in red suits and balaclavas also caused hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage to an electronics plant in Wales that year, which they believed was making circuit boards for Israeli drones. The group's activities ramped up after the October 7, 2023 attacks. As Israeli forces announced a 'full siege' on Gaza, Palestine Action published a list of over 50 targets 'complicit in Elbit's murderous arms trade'. A few days later they sprayed the headquarters of the BBC — which wasn't on the list — with red paint to 'symbolise complicity in genocide'. Protestors also blockaded Lockheed Martin in Bedford, smeared red paint over the Foreign Office and targeted the headquarters of aerospace firm Leonardo, at which two men were arrested for what the Met called racially aggravated criminal damage. Their actions began to go beyond scaling roof tops and breaking factory windows. Members of the campaign group allegedly used a modified prison van to ram the entrance of Elbit's Bristol HQ last summer. Once inside they dismantled weapons, allegedly caused £1 million in damage and assaulted two officers were with a sledgehammer, police said. Eighteen people were charged and held on remand over the break-in. Less than a month after members of Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers painting, two Palestine Action members squirted tomato ketchup at a statue of former prime minister Arthur Balfour. The former foreign secretary has been a focus of activist anger as he was the signatory of the Balfour Declaration, a 1917 document that pledged support for the establishment of a 'national home for the Jewish people' in Palestine. In March 2024, the group used blades to slash a painting of Lord Balfour hanging in the University of Cambridge. Seven months later — to mark the declaration's anniversary — they reportedly stole two busts of Israel's first president from the University of Manchester's chemistry building. As Palestine Action grew in notoriety and numbers, the British state also became a target. Early in 2024, six members were arrested for allegedly plotting to prevent the London Stock Exchange from opening. Activists have inevitably attracted the attention of authorities and received jail time. Among the first to be hauled before the courts were five members in November 2022, who had covered Elbit's Kingsway offices in their, now signature, red paint. They were, however, acquitted by a jury of 'conspiracy to commit criminal damage' and the offices later closed. Palestine Action declared a victory for this and for the closure of an Elbit factory in Oldham, where their sustained protests had resulted in 36 arrests. In August 2024, five members of the group were handed custodial sentences for protest action. It took two years for the courts to hand out suspended prison sentences and order the protesters to pay more than £5,000 in compensation after seven activists broke into the Bristol headquarters of Elbit to destroy equipment. Zoë Rogers turned 21 in prison. She had been charged with criminal damage, violent disorder and aggravated burglary in relation to the Bristol incident after telling her mother, Clare, that the pro-Palestine marches 'weren't working'. She was denied bail and is on remand with a trial set for November 2025. Fatema Zainab was arrested and charged as part of the same operation. As the court system caught up in December 2023, two members of a group known as the Elbit Eight, Genevieve Scherer and Jocelyn Cooney, were acquitted on charges relatingfrom July 2020 to January 2021. Their defence had argued that they were justified in 'working to disrupt manufacture of Israel's weaponry'. Richard Barnard was convicted of one count of criminal damage at the now-closed Elbit factory in Oldham.

BBC News

an hour ago

• BBC News

Rural crime gangs 'scoping out' farms to steal equipment, NFU says

Organised crime groups are "scoping out" farms in order to steal equipment including quad bikes and 4x4s, Wales' leading farming union has said."They know where these items are and they often know where the keys are kept, so it can be very intrusive," said Abi Reader, National Farmers' Union (NFU) Cymru's deputy cost of rural crime fell across the UK in 2024 except in Wales where it rose by 18% to £2.8m, NFU research shows – however this was also one of the lowest figures across the Police said it was aware of the worry caused by rural crime, and would continue with operations and targeted patrols across the force area. As well as organised crime, rural crime issues include livestock theft, dog attacks and fly tipping, according to Reader, 43, described it as an "enormous issue" in Wales, ranging from everyday items being stolen to livestock attacks by dogs and damage to crops caused by also said the theft of quad bikes, which can cost several thousand pounds, was a particular issue."They seem to be high on the list of organised crime, and there are a lot of them in Wales."We're a livestock nation, and they're essential for day-to-day working life, so when they're stolen it has a huge emotional and financial impact."She added farmers were also concerned about the potential for thefts to happen "again and again and again"."These things come in waves, and we know organised crime groups are operating in communities. They're scoping out farms and they know where these items are," she said. Some farmers are increasing their own security by installing CCTV and placing trackers on their vehicles, but Ms Reader said police needed to place more resources on rural by the NFU said the total cost of rural crime in the UK fell by 16.5% last year from £52.8m in 2023 to £44.1m in 2024, praising the "power of collaboration" between farmers, police and figures show a fall in the cost of rural crime in all parts of the UK except in Wales, where it increased from £2.4m to £2.8m, a rise of 18%.Wales had the third lowest cost for rural crime in the UK in 2024, with only Northern Ireland (£1.8m) and Scotland (£1.2m) being lower, while the Midlands was the region with the highest cost at £8.1m. Garry Williams, 55, who runs a farm near Llangadog, Carmarthenshire, said he had had equipment such as chainsaws, farm tools and fencing materials stolen, as well as said organised crime groups will steal "anywhere between 12 to 15 quad bikes in the area, and that could be all over Carmarthenshire". "They'll strike in one area, and then move somewhere else," he said, adding there were concerns that some of these groups were becoming "more determined" and more willing to use violence."It does cause mental stress... it's not a nice feeling someone coming onto your farm, your property, at night," he Williams added livestock theft was also an issue, some of which was "farmer-to-farmer"."They'll load them up in the night and steal them and try and pass them onto an abattoir or the livestock market," he issues he raised were fly-tipping, particularly in remote areas, as well as dog attacks on livestock resulting from improved access to footpaths in rural areas."You can have the nicest dog in the world, but people often don't want to put them on a lead, and if they attack they can cause some really nasty injuries," he said. Mr Williams said he believed police resources was an issue when it comes to tackling rural he was positive about collaboration with Dyfed-Powys Police, including a recent meeting with the police commissioner, he urged the force to put more resources into the issue including having an inspector dedicated to tackling rural crime."It works when the infrastructure is in place, when there are officers who know about rural crime, but it can feel like a postcode lottery. What we want is consistency of that structure," he Police said it was "aware of the significant impact that crimes of this nature have on victims and the worry it can cause to the wider community".A spokesperson said officers from its rural crime team visited farms to conduct "crime prevention audits", while also providing DNA-marking kits to help protect "valuable equipment and machinery"."We will continue with operations and targeted patrols across the force area, however given the huge area we cover, it is difficult to be everywhere," they said.

The Sun

2 hours ago

• The Sun

Ex-police officer fired for ‘intimidating teenager' helps tackle shoplifter

AN ex-police officer sacked for intimidating an arrested teen has brought down a shoplifter. Former PC Lorne Castle tackled the crook as he fled a Nike store with stolen goods on Thursday. The 46-year-old held his arms and kneeled astride him until ex-police pals arrived and arrested the alleged thief. It was the same day the fight gym boss decided to appeal against a decision by Dorset police to fire him for using too much force as he tackled a knife-wielding 15-year-old last year. The dad put his hand in the teen's face and failed to show 'respect'. But the Nike store boss praised Lorne's latest action in Bournemouth for being 'extremely pleasant and courteous'. Supporter Norman Brennan, a retired policeman, said: 'It was a citizen's arrest by the sort of officer the public wants.' The father-of-three has had lots of public support since the misconduct hearing went against him. A GoFundMe campaign to support him and his family has raised over £120,000. Dorset Police was approached for comment. Thief banned from every Greggs store in Britain after targeting one shop SEVEN times as cops launch crackdown 1