Two men jailed for £4.8m Blenheim Palace heist

Throughout sentencing at Oxford Crown Court docket on Friday, Decide Ian Pringle described it a “daring and brazen” heist that took “not more than five-and-a-half minutes to finish”.

Sheen was a key participant – a profession felony and the one man convicted of each housebreaking and promoting the gold.

He pleaded responsible final yr after police discovered his DNA on the scene and gold fragments in his clothes.

Police additionally recovered his cellphone which contained a wealth of incriminating messages.

Shan Saunders, the senior crown prosecutor on the case, mentioned it was “uncommon to have a cellphone that when downloaded comprises a lot data”.

Through the trial, jurors heard voice messages despatched by Sheen to Fred Doe, a Berkshire businessman who was convicted for conspiring to promote the gold in March.

Saunders mentioned deciphering the messages was “an extended and complex course of”, because of the mix of coded language, Romany slang and Cockney rhyming slang used.

In a single message, Sheen confirmed he was in possession of among the gold bathroom.

It learn: “I feel you realize what I’ve acquired… I’ve simply been a bit quiet with it.”

He additionally used the phrase “automobile” as code for gold.

“ The automobile is what it’s mate, innit? The automobile is nearly as good as cash,” he mentioned.

Inside two weeks of the heist Sheen had bought 20kg (44lb) of gold – about one fifth of the bathroom’s weight – to an unknown purchaser in Birmingham for £520,000.

A BBC investigation in March revealed Sheen’s criminal history.

It discovered he had been jailed a minimum of six occasions since 2005 and led organised crime teams that had made greater than £5m from fraud and theft – cash which authorities had largely didn’t get better.

There was no response from both of the boys when their sentences had been learn out.

Sentencing Sheen, Decide Pringle mentioned he had a “really stunning record of earlier convictions”.

Talking on to Sheen, he mentioned: “You had been nearly actually the determine who carried the sledgehammer on which your DNA was discovered and which was used to sever the functioning bathroom from its connecting pipes.”

Sheen was already serving a 19-year sentence for earlier crimes, and he’ll serve the four-year sentence for the heist consecutively.

The choose mentioned Jones, who labored for Sheen as a roofer, additionally had a “lengthy and unenviable record of earlier convictions”.

Within the week main as much as the heist he paid two visits to Blenheim.

Only a day previous to the raid, on Sheen’s directions, he booked a timeslot on Blenheim’s web site to make use of the gold bathroom.

Whereas contained in the cubicle, Jones snapped photos of the golden bathroom and a lock on the door.

In one of many trial’s lighter moments he confirmed he did use bathroom, calling the expertise “splendid”.

In October 2019, only one month after the heist, police arrested Sheen and Jones however they had been subsequently launched. They weren’t charged for one more 4 years.

Det Supt Bruce Riddell, of Thames Valley Police (TVP), mentioned: “We arrested 12 individuals in whole within the investigation, and that brings with it an enormous quantity of digital units to look at.”

He additionally mentioned it took months for key forensic proof to be recognized and that the investigation was slowed by the pandemic.

The BBC requested the probation service why Sheen was not recalled to jail in October 2019.

The Ministry of Justice mentioned an arrest didn’t essentially imply the offender had breached their licence circumstances, and that Sheen was recalled to jail in Could 2020 as quickly as there was proof he had accomplished so.

Sheen has remained in jail since Could 2020.

5 males had been seen on CCTV finishing up the heist nevertheless it stays unclear whether or not Jones was truly on the raid, which means both three or 4 burglars stay at massive.

Det Supt Riddell mentioned he was “pretty sure” officers knew who two of the opposite burglars had been.

Solely 4 of the 12 individuals arrested met the evidential threshold to convey costs, in response to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Det Supt Riddell mentioned police had been reviewing the case and appealed for anybody with details about the heist to contact TVP.

“They may maintain that little little bit of nugget, or that little little bit of intelligence that might assist us with this case,” he mentioned.

Doe, from Windsor, Berkshire, was discovered responsible of conspiring to promote the gold and given a 21-month suspended sentence in Could.

Bora Guccuk, a jeweller from London, was cleared of the identical cost at trial.