Gold toilet heist 'bold and brazen' - judge

Jurors in the trial of three men accused over the theft of a £4.8m solid gold toilet have retired to consider their verdicts.

The 18-carat artwork was taken from Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire in the early hours of 14 September 2019, two days after it went on display as part of an exhibition.

Judge Ian Pringle KC, who has described the crime as "a bold and brazen burglary", ended his summing up by urging the jury to try and agree on unanimous verdicts for all three defendants.

Michael Jones, 39, from Oxford, denies one count of burglary. Bora Guccuk, 41 from West London and 36-year-old Fred Doe from Windsor, both deny conspiracy to transfer criminal property.

A fourth man, James Sheen, 40, from Oxford, has previously pleaded guilty to burglary and transferring or converting gold.

Thieves stole the fully-functioning toilet in a raid which took just five minutes, Oxford Crown Court previously heard.

It weighed 98kg (216lbs) and was insured for $6m (£4.8m).

Gold prices at the time would have seen the metal alone worth £2.8m, the court was told.

The artwork, called America, was part of an exhibition by the Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan.

Jurors heard it was most likely broken up, and has never been recovered.

Judge Pringle told the jury: "This was not a bog standard burglary – it was an audacious heist on one of the most famous palaces in this country.

"It was a bold and brazen burglary, with great rewards for anyone who got away with it."

Earlier in the trial, Mr Jones admitted in court he visited the palace on two occasions before the theft.

On the second visit - the day before the heist - he told the court he had booked a slot to use the toilet, an experience he described as "splendid".

The prosecution suggested the visits, along with photographs Mr Jones had taken of the toilet and the window the thieves would later use to gain entry to the palace, were reconnaissance for the robbery.

But Mr Jones said a series of messages he sent to Sheen during these visits were work-related or about a large dog kennel he was planning to help Sheen collect after his visit to the exhibition.

Mr Jones told the court he was at home in bed at the time of the raid.

Prosecutors said a series of messages, voice notes and screengrabs discovered on Sheen, Mr Doe and Mr Guccuk's phones in the days after the burglary, showed the trio negotiated a price of £25,632 per kilo for about 20kg (44lbs) of the stolen gold.

Mr Doe told the court he had tried to help Sheen sell the gold but said he would "never in a million years" have dealt with him if he had known it was stolen.

In his closing statement, his defence barrister Crispin Aylett KC told the jury: "You might think [he] is a proud man, you might think that he has been a fool but he is not a criminal.

"This loss to the nation's bottoms cannot be laid at the feet of Fred Doe."

Defence barrister Kevin Dent KC told the court there was "no evidence" against his client Mr Guccuk.

The jeweller and gold dealer chose not to take the stand, which the prosecution said meant important questions went unanswered, including what the gold looked like when it was delivered to his jewellers in Hatton Garden.

The prosecution has previously said Mr Guccuk must have known where it had come from as he had agreed a price without having seen it.

But Mr Dent asked the jury: "What clear evidence is there that Mr Guccuk did anything wrong or criminal?"

He said what Mr Guccuk had done was "ordinary business…. There is no evidence there was anything suspicious about the gold itself".

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