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Fourteen men convicted of plotting to steal £57m of Chinese artefacts Fourteen men convicted of plotting to steal £57m of Chinese artefacts
(35 minutes later)
Fourteen men linked to an organised crime gang have been convicted of plotting to steal rhino horn and Chinese artefacts worth up to £57m in a series of museum and auction house raids.Fourteen men linked to an organised crime gang have been convicted of plotting to steal rhino horn and Chinese artefacts worth up to £57m in a series of museum and auction house raids.
On Monday a jury at Birmingham crown court convicted four of the gang’s “generals” who helped to plan and oversee a string of offences, including break-ins at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum and Durham’s Oriental Museum in 2012.On Monday a jury at Birmingham crown court convicted four of the gang’s “generals” who helped to plan and oversee a string of offences, including break-ins at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum and Durham’s Oriental Museum in 2012.
John “Kerry” O’Brien Jr, Richard “Kerry” O’Brien, Michael Hegarty and Daniel “Turkey” O’Brien were found guilty after a trial which could not be reported because of similar offences committed by a group of criminals nicknamed the Rathkeale Rovers. Stealing museum artefacts worth a total of at least £50m might seem like the work of a hugely accomplished and organised criminal gang, not one whose mishaps included dropping a rhino head as they ran away or losing a priceless Ming dynasty bowl because they forgot to properly mark where they had hidden it on a map.
Related: Fitzwilliam museum in Cambridge celebrates its 200th birthdayRelated: Fitzwilliam museum in Cambridge celebrates its 200th birthday
The two-month trial at Birmingham crown court heard that 10 other men had previously been convicted for their parts in the conspiracy, which included a bungled attempt to steal a rhino head from Norwich Castle Museum in February 2012. Among the many likely misjudgements of the so-called Rathkeale Rovers gang, named after six of the members’ family village in Ireland, was getting external robbers to carry out the raids – hired help who seemed better at breaking into museums than escaping successfully with the loot.
Although jurors heard that exhibits stolen in Durham and Cambridge were valued at around £17m, detectives believe they may have fetched up to £57m on the booming Chinese auction market. Nonetheless, the gang managed to steal items more valuable than the combined haul of last year’s Hatton Garden raid, according to police.
At least eight of the men convicted after a four-year international police inquiry have family or business links to the village of Rathkeale in Ireland. The Birmingham trial was told that a computer used to make incriminating internet searches was found at a house in the County Limerick village. The series of verdicts can only now be reported after Monday’s conclusion of the trial of four of the gang’s “generals”. The two-month hearing at Birmingham crown court saw John “Kerry” O’Brien Jr, Richard “Kerry” O’Brien, Daniel “Turkey” O’Brien and Michael Hegarty convicted of masterminding a series of raids in 2012.
Their trial was due to be heard with a ban on reporters making reference to the Rathkeale Rovers or another criminal group known as the Dead Zoo Gang. But a judge opted to ban reporting until the end of the trial, after accepting that previous media coverage of rhino horn thefts across Europe could prejudice jurors. The first robbery attempt, in January 2012, saw a paid accomplice try to grab a Ming dynasty sculpture at the Oriental museum in Durham. He was stopped by staff after stuffing the sculpture into a rucksack and sprinting up a staircase.
The plots to raid British museums of Chinese artefacts dwarfed the more high-profile Hatton Garden heist, a senior detective said. Putting an exact figure on the items the gang managed to remove from the Fitzwilliam Museum and almost got away with taking from the Oriental Museum was tricky, but it was estimated at £18-£57 million. The Hatton Garden raid was thought to have been worth £14m. Worse was to come the next month, with an attempt to take a rhino head from Norwich’s Castle museum, a raid described in court as “a fiasco”. Four thieves, again hired in by the gang, dropped the head, which was heavier than they expected, as they ran out of the museum pursued by members of the public, also leaving behind a car number plate bearing an incriminating fingerprint.
Det Supt Adrian Green, of Durham police, said of the museum thefts: “If you think the Hatton Garden break-in was big, this will blow that out of the water.” Still more chaotic scenes followed about six weeks later after more rented gang members smashed a hole in a wall at Durham’s Oriental Museum late at night. They stole a figurine and a Ming dynasty jade bowl, the latter described by police as one of the best in the world and estimated to be worth between £2m and £16m.
Green was first involved when raiders broke in to the Oriental Museum at Durham University in April 2012. Commercial burglars broke through walls the night before Good Friday, burst in and swiftly grabbed an exquisite jade bowl and a figurine, then fled. Green said: “The bowl is Ming dynasty and is one of the best in the world with a value in excess of £2m and as high as £16m.” The items were found by police on waste ground a few miles from the museum, but the gang went looking for other jade bowls, having missed out on the Durham one. The rented robbers left the items at a pre-agreed “deposition site” on wasteland near Durham’s Meadowfield industrial estate, the trial heard, but the organising gang were unable to find them, prompting a series of frantic phone calls. Police eventually recovered the items eight days later.
Another team of burglars, one aged just 15, were instructed to strike at the Fitzwilliam Museum, cutting through shutters and getting away with 18 items. None have been recovered. Their value has been estimated to be between £16m and £40m. Police linked the two raids and asked other forces around the country for examples of crimes involving auction houses and museums, Chinese artefacts or rhino horn and elephant tusks. Prosecutor Robert Davies told the trial the raid had been a case of “steal it, can’t find it”. He said: “It all came to nothing when they had not, pirate-style, put a cross on a map.”
The National Crime Agency took on the role, with support from the Crown Prosecution Service, HMRC, Europol and the Criminal Assets Bureau in Dublin. It emerged that a rhino horn libation cup worth £250,000 had previously been taken from Durham Oriental Museum. A team of criminals had gone to Norwich Castle Museum and tried to steal a heavy rhino head that was on display, but they were tackled by members of the public and had to dump it. The gang’s luck did not change in March 2012, when three more hired-in robbers, posing as customers at an auction house in Lewes, East Sussex, jumped over a counter and stole a £20,000 bamboo cup instead of the rhino horn equivalent they were meant to take, worth about ten times as much. They were then arrested after members of the public intervened.
There was an attempted theft from an auction house in Lewes, East Sussex, in March 2013 where criminals posing as customers leapt over the counter and grabbed a £20,000 bamboo cup instead of a libation cup worth 10 times that amount. The following month, however, there was success, as four hired burglars, one aged just 15, took more than a dozen jade pieces worth at least £15m from the Fitzwilliam Museum. The robbers were soon arrested but the stolen items have never been recovered. The court heard that the gang also targeted the Kelvingrove Museum and the Burrell collection in Glasgow, but failed to take anything.
The Kelvingrove Museum and the Burrell Collection in Glasgow were also targeted in March 2012 for Chinese artefacts, but the gang failed to steal anything. Police say it is almost impossible to place an authoritative total value on the items which were stolen, especially given variable potential resale values in China. Det Supt Adrian Green of Durham police said the total was estimated to be in the range of £18m to £57m, versus the £14m of valuables taken from safe deposit boxes in London’s Hatton Garden. “If you think the Hatton Garden break-in was big, this will blow that out of the water,” Green said.
A countrywide team of 24 detectives looked for international figures who instructed individual teams of thieves, and pieced together a huge investigation. It led to 25 people being arrested in England and Northern Ireland, with 40 premises searched including properties in Ireland and Spain.
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Green said: “If you look at the audacity of what they do and the value of the property that they have taken, I think that makes them significant criminals both within the UK and potentially across the world. I also think they are cowards because they hire in others, some of them vulnerable, some of the children, to actually do the dirty work. They do that while they are at safe distances, sometimes in another country, so they cannot be caught ... But they can.” Green said the gang hired in robbers while they waited “at safe distances, sometimes in another country”. He said: “If you look at the audacity of what they do and the value of the property that they have taken, I think that makes them significant criminals both within the UK and potentially across the world. I also think they are cowards because they hire in others, some of them vulnerable, some of the children, to actually do the dirty work.”
Museum security has been increased as a result of the case. Green said: “They are a bit like banks where people can come in and touch the money. Their job is to hold items for the public and let them see them and it is quite difficult for them to get the balance right. The higher the security, the higher the budget to maintain that security. The difficult thing is, it is all driven by China’s economic boom.” At least eight of the men convicted have family or business links to the village of Rathkeale in Ireland. The four-year investigation was led by the National Crime Agency, supported by Europol and the Criminal Assets Bureau in Dublin.
John Davies, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s organised crime division in Birmingham said: “This was a highly complex case as most of the individuals convicted were behind the scenes organising the entire operation, rather than physically entering the museums. We built a strong case based on evidence such as extensive telephone records. Material from the defendants’ laptops also provided evidence of websites they had accessed and search terms they had inputted online in relation to their crimes.”
DCI Jim McCrorie from Cambridgeshire police said the items lost from the Fitzwilliam were “of huge cultural significance”. He said: “We remain committed to following any new lines of inquiry that could lead to their recovery.”
Among those convicted are six members of the same Rathkeale family, Richard Sheridan, a Travellers’ rights campaigner involved in opposing the eviction of families from the Dale Farm site in Essex in 2011, and Donald Chi Chong Wong, a London-based “fence” with close links to Hong Kong.
Wong’s trial heard that he submitted modest tax returns but lived in a double-fronted three-storey home overlooking Clapham Common in south London. The court was told police twice found him with thousands of pounds in cash stuffed in plastic bags. One one occasion, officers assisting Wong after he was injured in an unconnected attempted robbery found a green carrier bag and a black pouch containing £68,000 under the passenger seat of a car.
TimelineTimeline
These are the key dates in the conspiracy which saw Chinese artefacts worth at up to £57m stolen from museums in Durham and Cambridge.These are the key dates in the conspiracy which saw Chinese artefacts worth at up to £57m stolen from museums in Durham and Cambridge.
Fourteen members of a gang which planned and co-ordinated the offences, and sold stolen items on through a middleman, are facing jail after being convicted of taking part in the year-long plot.Fourteen members of a gang which planned and co-ordinated the offences, and sold stolen items on through a middleman, are facing jail after being convicted of taking part in the year-long plot.
20122012
16 January: A paid accomplice drafted in by the gang’s “generals” attempts a smash-and-grab of a Ming dynasty sculpture at the Oriental Museum in Durham. Staff apprehend the thief, who was brought in from Belfast, after he stuffs the item into a rucksack and sprints up a spiral staircase. Other members of the gang then fly to Ireland or return to Cambridgeshire.16 January: A paid accomplice drafted in by the gang’s “generals” attempts a smash-and-grab of a Ming dynasty sculpture at the Oriental Museum in Durham. Staff apprehend the thief, who was brought in from Belfast, after he stuffs the item into a rucksack and sprints up a spiral staircase. Other members of the gang then fly to Ireland or return to Cambridgeshire.
20 February: In what is later described in court as “a fiasco”, four offenders – again hired in and working to the conspirators’ instructions – drop a rhino head as they attempt to leave the Castle Museum in Norwich. Having apparently failed to appreciate that the head would be too heavy to carry, the men then abandon a car number plate bearing an incriminating fingerprint.20 February: In what is later described in court as “a fiasco”, four offenders – again hired in and working to the conspirators’ instructions – drop a rhino head as they attempt to leave the Castle Museum in Norwich. Having apparently failed to appreciate that the head would be too heavy to carry, the men then abandon a car number plate bearing an incriminating fingerprint.
16 March: Robbers make off with a bamboo cup after vaulting the counter during a viewing day at Gorringes auction house in Lewes, East Sussex. Three raiders – who had been tasked with stealing a rhino horn libation cup worth about £60,000 – are arrested nearby after members of the public intervene.16 March: Robbers make off with a bamboo cup after vaulting the counter during a viewing day at Gorringes auction house in Lewes, East Sussex. Three raiders – who had been tasked with stealing a rhino horn libation cup worth about £60,000 – are arrested nearby after members of the public intervene.
5 April: Criminals strike again at Durham’s Oriental Museum, escaping with a jade bowl worth at least £2m and a figurine after smashing a hole in a wall to gain entry. Both objects are left at a pre-agreed “deposition site” on wasteland near Durham’s Meadowfield industrial estate after the late-night raid. Frantic phone calls between senior gang members follow after numerous attempts to find the items fail.5 April: Criminals strike again at Durham’s Oriental Museum, escaping with a jade bowl worth at least £2m and a figurine after smashing a hole in a wall to gain entry. Both objects are left at a pre-agreed “deposition site” on wasteland near Durham’s Meadowfield industrial estate after the late-night raid. Frantic phone calls between senior gang members follow after numerous attempts to find the items fail.
13 April: Police eventually recover the artefacts. Prosecutor Robert Davies described the raid as a “steal it, can’t find it” failure, saying: “It all came to nothing when they had not – pirate-style – put a cross on a map.”13 April: Police eventually recover the artefacts. Prosecutor Robert Davies described the raid as a “steal it, can’t find it” failure, saying: “It all came to nothing when they had not – pirate-style – put a cross on a map.”
The gang finally hit the jackpot, successfully stealing 18 high-end jade pieces with a value of at least £15m from Cambridge University’s Fitzwilliam Museum. Although four people captured on CCTV smashing their way into the museum at 7.29pm were apprehended and dealt with by the courts within months, the items were removed via car and taxi. Detectives believe they were in the hands of gang member Alan Clarke – who was waiting to receive them in a station car park in Purfleet in Essex – by the early hours of the following day.The gang finally hit the jackpot, successfully stealing 18 high-end jade pieces with a value of at least £15m from Cambridge University’s Fitzwilliam Museum. Although four people captured on CCTV smashing their way into the museum at 7.29pm were apprehended and dealt with by the courts within months, the items were removed via car and taxi. Detectives believe they were in the hands of gang member Alan Clarke – who was waiting to receive them in a station car park in Purfleet in Essex – by the early hours of the following day.
20132013
10 September: After intensive pan-European investigations into those who directed the raids, police execute warrants simultaneously at about 30 locations in the West Midlands, London, Sussex, Cambridgeshire, Essex and Northern Ireland.10 September: After intensive pan-European investigations into those who directed the raids, police execute warrants simultaneously at about 30 locations in the West Midlands, London, Sussex, Cambridgeshire, Essex and Northern Ireland.