Clumsy Oriental Museum Thieves Jailed

Two men have been jailed for stealing £2m artefacts from the University Oriental Museum and then forgetting where they left them.

Adrian Stanton and Lee Wildman, both from Walsall, will be jailed for 8 and 9 years respectively. Four others from Walsall were sentenced for assisting them.

At Durham Crown Court, the pair admitted conspiracy to burgle.

Wildman and Stanton strategically raided the museum the night before Good Friday last year, when the campus was quiet. The pair chiselled a hole through the wall, before picking out a 1769 jade bowl and a Dehua porcelain figurine, together worth £2m.

Lee Wildman and Adrian Stanton were sentenced on Friday

But the rest of the operation was not quite as well planned.

The items were then hidden on wasteland, but on his return two days later, Wildman was unable to find them, described by the Judge as “crass ineptitude”.

The court heard a witness’ report of him searching the plot and speaking on his phone in an agitated manner.

Judge Christopher Prince commented: “This is not an offence that can be described as sophisticated.

“Although this burglary was carried out according to a prepared plan, there were elements towards the end of it that reduced the plan to complete farce.”

He noted how Wildman and Stanton showed no remorse and told “transparent” lies in the two-day hearing at Durham crown court. The pair reportedly tried to play down their roles in the burglary.

The judge also pointed out the difficulty of putting a price on the items, saying: “The financial value of artefacts such as these is perhaps the very least important factor. These items have got a historical, cultural and artistic value that is quite simply immeasurable.

“Their loss has had the most enormous detrimental effect on the university, both in expenditure they have had to make in improving their security and in the loss of potential confidence from benefactors.”

The items were later discovered by a member of the public.

The pair can be seen on CCTV a week before the break-in, visiting within opening hours and testing security.

Wildman responded to the footage saying, “”It’s not a crime to visit a museum.”

Only weeks before their arrest, Stanton and Wildman had received suspended sentences for breaking into an arcade in Rhyl by cutting a hole in the roof.

When later stopped on their way home, police discovered £10,000 in coins that the pair had stolen from slot machines.