Fred Doe, the son of a multimillionaire caravan magnate, avoided jail after he tried to sell a £4.8 million ($6.4 million) golden toilet stolen from England’s Blenheim Palace.
The 37-year-old was convicted of trying to sell 10 kg of the gold on behalf of a burglar who stole the toilet. Doe was given a 21-month suspended sentence after he was found guilty of conspiracy to convert or transfer criminal property in March. While sentencing Doe, the judge said that he had no personal gain or wide involvement and was only part of the sale for a short period. Doe has, however, been ordered to do 240 hours of unpaid work.
The golden toilet
The 18-carat toilet named “America” was created by the artist Maurizio Cattelan and installed at the Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire as part of an exhibition.
The unusual artwork was created in 2016 for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. It was set in one of the museum’s bathrooms along with other toilets to be used by the visitors.
According to the museum, over 100,000 people waited in line to use it and a security guard was posted outside the bathroom. The gold toilet weighed over 103 kilograms, which in September 2019 was valued at more than four million dollars.
The toilet robbery
Five men broke into the palace in September 2019 and ripped out the toilet before fleeing in a stolen car. Doe went on trial with Michael Jones, 39, and Bora Guccuk, 41. James Sheen, 40, another burglar who had enlisted Doe’s help to sell the gold, had already pleaded guilty to burglary.
A few days after the burglary, Sheen contacted Doe to discuss selling the stolen gold. Using coded language, the pair exchanged messages referring to “cars” and being offered “26 and a half,” which, according to the Crown Prosecution Service, was a covert reference to receiving £26,500 per kilo of gold.
The judge noted that Doe had been of good character previously and accepted that the conspirators may have taken advantage of his good nature and used him for his contacts in the Hatton Garden jewellery district. “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,” he told reporters outside the court.
