The suspect of theft “who stole the golden toilet of the Blenheim Palace, of 4.75 million pounds”, tells Court that he collected the dog’s cup when he is accused of recognizing

A man accused of sprouting a golden toilet of 4.8 million pounds at the Blenheim Palace told a court that he asked to collect a dog cup, not to make a recognition, the day before the attack.

Michael Jones, 39 years old, visited the historical estate on two occasions, in previous days, a gang and threw the road inside to steal the art work on September 14, 2019, including an exhibition one day earlier.

He is in court with two other men from Oxford Crown Court, accused of joining the plot to steal the 18 carat gold toilet – an art work entitled “America” ​​- and sells gold. He denies a single charge of burglary.

Prosecutors claim that both visits were to make recognition on behalf of thieves, while he was in regular contact with one of the leaders and took pictures of the toilet on his phone.

At that time, Jones worked for a building company owned by James Sheen, 40 years old, who has already been guilty of taking part after his DNA was found on the spot and gold fragments recovered from his clothes.

The day before burglary, Sheen sent Jones by saying that “you don’t go to work today, I have anything else for you.”

Jones and his partner Carly reserved a slot to visit the exhibition at 16:00, but then moved their visit to noon, shortly after receiving a message from Sheen, suggesting that it was not a suitable time.

Asked by his lawyer Jeffrey Israel about what he meant about doing “something else” to Mr. Sheen, Jones said to the court: “He wanted to want to go to pick up a dog in Milton Keynes.”

Mr. Israel replied: “He explained why he said he was not early enough?”

Jones said, “Because the place would close and he didn’t want to be late.”

Telephone data records indicated that Jones was in the Milton Keynes area with Sheen.

He insisted that his visit on September 13, and no previous visit from September 7 was to make recognition for Sheen – and claimed that he has no knowledge about the plot of thefts.

Jones said that both travelers are his idea and did not ask to go to Blenheim Palace de Sheen.

Opening the case for criminal prosecution last week, Julian Christopher KC invited the jury to conclude that Jones was probably part of the gang that performed the burglary.

He said that it would make sense that the gang would have taken someone with knowledge of the look of the building and indicated the telephone activity, suggesting that Jones had slept late in the next morning.

The toilet, which weighed 98 kg completely installed, was ripped in a five-minute dramatic raid on the Blenheim Palace shortly before 5 in the morning, on September 14th.

A gang armed with Sledgehammers and Crowbars was caught on the CCTV running the toilet on the broken window and in the boot of a waiting machine before slipping.

Along with Jones in Doc are Frederick Doe, 36, from Windsor, and Bora Guccuk, 41, from London, who are accused of converting or transferring criminal properties.

Sheen from Wellingborough from Northamptonshire has previously been guilty of burglary and transfer or transformation.

The process continues.