19-05-2025
Watch dealer who tried to sell €5.7m 'golden bog' stolen from Blenheim Palace walks free
"This was not a bog standard burglary. It was an audacious heist...a brazen burglary with great rewards'
Maurice Sines, now known as Fred Doe Snr, and the golden toilet
A watch dealer who tried to sell the £4.8m (€5.7m) 'golden bog' after burglars stole it from Blenheim Palace walked free from court today.
Career robber Jimmy Sheen, 40, and Michael Jones, 38, ripped the lavatory pan from the wall at the stately home with sledgehammers and a crowbar, leaving water gushing over the floor.
The 18 carat toilet was broken up and part of it passed on to Fred Doe, 37, who attempted to sell it though Hatton Garden jeweller Bora Guccuk, 41.
Sheen is currently serving a 17 year sentence for leading a gang of travellers on a year-long crime wave targeting ATMs, a Newmarket horseracing museum and high-value tractors and construction vehicles in 2022.
Doe's father is Romany gypsy Maurice Sines, a caravan park millionaire who previously had a close association with Ireland's most notorious criminals, the Kinahan Cartel.
He once lived at a mansion on a private estate at the golf course in Wentworth, Surrey, with neighbours including Sir Elton John and the late Bruce Forsyth.
Maurice Sines, now known as Fred Doe Snr, and the golden toilet
News in 90 Seconds - May 19th
Sines, now known as Fred Doe snr, poses with gold legend Gary Player at Wentworth in a group shot on his LinkedIn profile.
His social media accounts show him posing next to his collection of Rolls Royces outside his mansion.
His son told the Oxford crown court he was a legitimate watch trader and had never done anything dishonest in his life.
Doe also helps mentor young boxers and one of his sons has boxed for England.
Married father-of-four Doe and Guccuk both denied converting or transferring criminal property.
Doe was convicted of the offence by the jury but Guccuk was cleared after a trial in March.
Jones denied but was convicted of burglary while Sheen admitted the offence.
Judge Ian Pringle had told jurors: "This was not a bog standard burglary. It was an audacious heist...a brazen burglary with great rewards."
The judge said five men were involved in the theft but only one, Sheen, was identified.
Sheen had connected Doe because of his connections with Hatton Garden.
"You foolishly agreed to assist him and I use your words - when asked how you feel about this now you said: 'I feel a fool'.
"You agreed to assist Sheen without any hope or indeed expectation of reward.'
Judge Pringle took into account the hardship 'immediate incarceration' would cause his family.
The judge added that Doe is a qualified boxing trainer and if he was jailed the Sporting Ring Boxing Club in Camberley would have to shut.
Judge Pringle sentenced Doe to 21 months imprisonment but suspended the term for two years and ordered him to perform 240 hours of community service within the next year.
There was applause from supporters in court when they learnt Doe would not be going straight to jail.
The 'Golden Bog'
Sheen and Jones will be sentenced on 13 June.
The 18-carat golden loo was named 'America' by conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan.
The 98kg toilet had been housed in the famous Guggenheim Museum in New York City before moving to Blenheim Palace just a week before the heist.
It had previously been offered to US president Donald Trump before being plumbed into a bathroom at Blenheim, the stately home where Winston Churchill was born.
Jurors were told the gold alone was worth £2.8m, while the toilet was insured for $6m.
Jones had been on two reconnaissance trips to the Palace on 7 and 13 September 2019 with his former partner Carly.
The toilet was opened to the public on 12 September, with visitors able to use it in three minute slots.
Jones took pictures including the toilet door lock exact window that would be used by the raiders.
He was in constant contact with Sheen as they planned the raid.
Just 17 hours after Jones' second visit, the toilet was ripped out of the Oxfordshire stately home, shortly before 5am on 14 September.
Five masked men drove through drove through locked wooden gates into the grounds of Blenheim Palace shortly before 5am in two stolen vehicles.
They smashed their way through the right hand side window and then into the small cubicle where the lavatory was sited.
'They knew precisely where to go, they went to the wooden door to the cubicle and broke it down," said prosecutor Julian Christopher.
The brazen robbery taking place
He said Jones had gone on the raid because he was needed to lead the rest of the gang to the lavatory pan.
In the aftermath of the burglary, Sheen got in touch with Doe with a plan to melt down and sell the gold.
Sheen sent Doe a message saying: "I'll link up with you, I got something right up your path.'
Referring to gold as 'car' Doe later said: "I do know just the man you need to see once you see me, the word on the street about the car, so I have the man there for you.
"I think you know what I've got,' Sheen replied.
Mr Christopher said: "It is clear that both of them know full well that it is the stolen gold they are talking about which is why they do not talk about it as if it is stolen gold, they use the word car.'
Doe told Sheen: "I can sell that car for you in two seconds ... so come and see me tomorrow and have a bit of dinner or something.'
In this time Sheen was in hospital with an infected hand and had to stay in overnight for two nights to have two operations.
Nonetheless, he sent Doe a message saying: "But you know what's there so just talk to who you gotta talk to today innit and just see what sort of money they're coming back on and let me know tomorrow mush, take care mate.'
Sheen also told Doe that he was being offered '26 and half' for a kilo of the 'car'
The robber said he had 20kg of gold to sell, at £26,500 a kilo.
Doe said that he and his father were hugely successful jewellery dealers and they would turn up at Hatton Garden in Rolls Royces to buy and sell exclusive watches.
He met with Sheen in the jewellery quarter and they went to see Guccuk who ran the Pasha shop there.
Doe - previously known as Fred Sines - insisted he had no idea that the gold Sheen wanted to sell was part of the toilet stolen in the Blenheim house raid.
"I would never in a lifetime jeopardise my family for an idiot with stolen gold,' he said.
He added: "I have never been dishonest in my life.'
He said traveller families often traded in large amounts of gold and it would not be unusual for them to have 20kg of gold.
Sheen claimed to be a professional builder but was jailed for the ATM raids after the 'Bog of Gold' theft.
He was jailed for 12 years in 2010 for a drive-by shooting in which two innocent people were hit.
None of the gold from the toilet has ever been recovered - Sheen sold 20 kilos to an associate in Birmingham for over £500,000 after the Hatton Garden deal fell through.
Jones said he worked for Sheen as a roofer which was why they were in contact and he had taken a picture of the window the raiders broke in through when he was at Blenhiem Palace because he "liked the view".
Crispin Aylett KC, defending Doe, asked Jones in cross-examination: 'You used the golden toilet, what was it like?'
"Splendid,' Jones replied.
Jones, of Oxford, denied but was convicted of one count of burglary.
Doe, of Ascot, Berkshire denied but was convicted of one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property
Guccuk of west London denied and was cleared of one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property
Sheen admitted one count of burglary.
