Gold toilet accused denies knowing seller was criminal

The solid gold toilet disappeared from Blenheim Palace in 2019

A man accused of trying to sell gold from a stolen £4.8m golden toilet has told a court he had no idea he had been dealing with a criminal.

The artwork, called America, was taken from Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire in the early hours of 14 September 2019, two days after it went on display.

Fred Doe said he put James Sheen, who has previously admitted stealing the toilet, in touch with gold dealer Bora Guccuk.

But Mr Doe told jurors he "wouldn't have involved myself with [Sheen]... if I'd known he was a burglar". Mr Doe, Mr Guccuk and a third man deny the charges against them.

'He's an idiot'

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

It weighed 98kg (216lbs) and was insured for $6m. Gold prices at the time would have seen the gold alone worth £2.8m, the court was told.

Prosecutor Julian Christopher KC 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.

When asked by the prosecutor: "You knew full well where the gold came from."

Mr Doe replied: "Not at any stage. If I'd had any inkling I wouldn't have got involved in this.

"I've let a lot of people down by getting involved with an idiot. Jimmy Sheen is an idiot. He's let me down."

Fred Doe admitted using the code word "cars" to represent kilograms of gold in a series of messages

Mr Doe also suggested another reason he was not suspicious was because Sheen was asking for market value for the gold, which, at that time was about £26,000 per kg.

"If he's says he wants [£20,000] a kilo, 'I wanna get rid of it', I'd think there's something wrong here. But he wanted £26,000," he said.

The jury heard a voice message from Mr Doe to Sheen in the days after the robbery in which he says Mr Guccuk "knows the full score of the car [codeword for kilo of gold] – what it is, what it was, what is wasn't".

The prosecution alleged this was about the gold being from the stolen toilet.

But Mr Doe said the exchange was "about the price of the gold" and Mr Guccuck would understand it to mean "what the price was" and about how the "market goes up and down".

(Left to right) Michael Jones, Bora Guccuk and Fred Doe deny the charges against them

Jurors heard the 18-carat gold toilet, which was part of an exhibition by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, was most likely broken up and has never been recovered.

Mr Doe, previously known as Frederick Sines, 36, from Windsor, and 41-year-old Mr Guccuk, from west London, both deny conspiracy to transfer criminal property.

Michael Jones, 39, from Oxford, denies one count of burglary.

Sheen, 40, from Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, has previously pleaded guilty to burglary.

The trial continues.