A man involved in the theft of Maurizio Cattelan’s gold toilet from Blenheim Palace, UK, in 2019, has been given a suspended sentence at Oxford crown court. Frederick Doe, 37, also known as Frederick Sines, from Windsor, was convicted by a jury in March of conspiring to transfer criminal property and was accused of trying to broker the sale of around 10 kilograms of the stolen gold, according to the Daily Mail.
Cattelan’s fully functioning 18-carat gold lavatory (America, 2016) was removed from an exhibition of the Italian artist's work at the 18th-century stately home on 14 September 2019 in a heist involving five men. The toilet was insured for £4.8m.
Doe, who acted as a “middle man” in the heist, was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered to do 240 hours unpaid work. Speaking outside court, Doe said: “My good nature has been taken advantage of. I got caught up in something I should not have and now I just want to go home and enjoy my family. I am a good person.”
In March, a jury found Michael Jones, 39, guilty of burglary following a three-week-long trial at Oxford Crown Court. A third man, James Sheen, 40, already pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to burglary, transferring criminal property and conspiracy to transfer criminal property. Sheen’s DNA was found both on a sledgehammer left at the scene and in the stolen Isuzu truck used in the raid.
According to the BBC, Doe told Sheen in a voice message that: “I can sell that car [code for the gold] for you in two split seconds.” He also organised a meeting between Sheen and a bullion dealer in Hatton Garden, London's jewellery quarter, but the deal collapsed. Sheen eventually sold 20 kilograms of gold, around a fifth of the toilet's gold, to an unknown buyer in Birmingham for £520,000.
