Antiques Dealer sent to Prison !!
By Nigel Freedman
http://www.theargus.co.uk/A crook who was caught with antiques from a violent country house robbery has been jailed for five years.
Phillip Capewell, 64, was arrested by armed police waiting for antiques from the raid at Aldsworth House, near Chichester, to be delivered to his home. They were tipped of (by Bernard Lyons) that Wolfgang Schmeltz and Christopher Doughty were on their way from Southampton to Capewell's flat at Warnham Court in Grand avenue, Hove.
All three men were forced to the ground at gunpoint as police seized part of the £382,000 Aldsworth House haul.
It included silver, medals, swords and guns awarded to five generations of retired Major Tom Williams' family since 1790.
Mr Williams, 73, and his wife Sarah, 68, were tied up after three men burst into their home on June 4th, 2006.
Mr Williams tried to fight back but was coshed with a truncheon and kicked and punched by two of the raiders.
The terrified couple were bound with gaffer tape and blindfolded as the robbers spent six hours ransacking their home.
During the ordeal one of the robbers threatened to pull Mr Williams' fingernails out with pliers if he did not tell them where to find the keys to the safe.
Mrs Williams described how the raiders burst into their home as they watched television.
She said: "I screamed rather pointlessly but it was terrifying."
Mrs Williams said one robber held her back while the others went to the drawing room where Mr Williams was half-asleep.
She said: "By the time I got there they were attacking my husband.
"One had a truncheon which he hit Tom with. The other was kicking him in the ribs."
The robbers eventually found the main safe and demanded the keys for it but the couple tried to stall them.
Schmeltz and Doughty made two trips from Southampton to Hove over the next four days to sell part of the haul to Capewell.
They face a retrial after a jury failed to reach verdicts on charges they staged the robbery at Aldsworth House.
Both men denied robbery but admitted one charge of handling stolen antiques from Aldsworth House.
Schmeltz claimed a man he refused to name had brought them to his home in Southampton.
Doughty claimed he was with Schmeltz because the German-born lorry driver owed him 32,000 for jewellery he had sold him.
After they were arrested police found an Aladdin's cave of stolen antiques in Capewell's garage at Warnham Court as well as a lock-up he rented in Suffolk.
The goods were taken in a series of raids across Sussex, Surrey, Kent and Essex, the jury at Hove Crown Court was told during a ten week trial.
Capewell was found guilty of handing antiques stolen from four of the raids but was cleared of handling charges on three more burglaries.
Capewell has previous convictions for handling and for stealing antiques from a walk-in theft at the home of an elderly victim for which he was jailed for two years in 1987.
Judge Guy Anthony told Capewell: "You are a thoroughly dishonest person who is prepared to act as an outlet for stolen antiques of high value."
"You are the sort of person who gives many antiques dealers a bad name."
"You are a professional handler of stolen goods willing to make yourself available to other criminals handling the proceeds of burglaries."
Judge Anthony said he was prepared to accept Capewell did not know antiques from Aldsworth House were the result of a violent robbery.
Richard Cherrill, defending, said Capewell had to accept the jury's verdict but still protested his innocence.
Mr and Mrs Williams were in court to see Capewell sentenced.
Mr Williams said "As there is a retrial to be held it would not be appropriate to comment at the moment."
Detective Sergeant Paul Sellings of Sussex Police Major crime branch, welcomed the sentence.
He said: "Phillip Capewell is a sophisticated, professional handler of stolen property.
"Within hours of recieving stolen property from Aldsworth House he had dispersed it throughout the South of England.
"Without such people thieves would be unable to realise the profits of their crimes.
"The sentence handed down today sends a clear message that men like Capewell will be treated seriously by the courts."
Brighton and Hove Antiques Mafia having a drink
Art Hostage comments:
Brace yourself for what Art Hostage has discovered, collating now.
First of all, Police did not get tipped off Schmeltz and Doughty were on their way from Southampton to deliver the stolen Aldsworth House antiques to Phillip Capewell, Police were tipped off Capewell was going to receive the stolen Aldsworth House antiques from Schmeltz and Doughty.
This is important because it shows the Police informant came from Brighton, connected to Capewell, rather than from Southampton, connected to Schmeltz and Doughty.
The Sussex Police informant on this case was a man called Bernard Lyons, who, similar to Capewell, has a long history of handling high value stolen antiques, but has had a longstanding feud with Capewell and his gang, Mechin, Rami, Wife beater coward David Gore etc.
This feud stems from the time back in the early 1990’s when there was a country house burglary in Norfolk, and two Dutch Seascape paintings, valued at £90,000 were stolen.
The paintings made their way to Brighton, where they were sold, knowingly to a stolen antiques handler called Rammi.
Now Bernard Lyons got to hear of this and informed Sussex Police Arts and antiques squad, ***** *********, his Police handler.
Rammi was duly arrested in a similar vein to Capewell and was charged with handling the two stolen Dutch seascapes from Norfolk.
Bernard Lyons tried, in vein to claim the reward offered, £9,000, but was thwarted because, as it turned out the Dutch Seascape paintings were only copies and therefore not worth anything like £90,000, Bernard Lyons was given £6,000 from Sussex Police Informant fund.
In revenge, Rammi enlisted the help of the Phillip Capewell gang to inform on Bernard Lyons and get him arrested when he was in possession of high value stolen antiques.
Can you see a pattern developing here ?
Some time later there was a Burglary at Hassocks, near Brighton, where a Minton Majolica garden statue of a Peacock by the famous Minton modeller Paul Comolera was stolen, ironically, the lady owner did have a pair of the valuable Peacocks and they were displayed in her garden, until one was stolen.
This one was kept in the bathroom of her house for safekeeping, although this two was stolen on the orders of Bernard Lyons.
These Minton Peacocks are highly collectible and would be worth up to £500,000 each, a cool £1 million for a pair if sold to an American collector.
Rammi found out Bernard Lyons had taken possession of the Minton Peacock and informed Phillip Capewell, who in turn contacted the Sussex Police Art and Antiques Squad.
Capewell had a long-standing relationship as a Sussex Police informer, he then gave his Police handler details of when and where Bernard Lyons would be in possession of the stolen Minton Peacock.
Now an internal Sussex Police battle developed between ***** ********* and ***** *********** about arresting Bernard Lyons, as he was a Police Informant of ***** *********'s.
However, ***** won the day and Bernard Lyons was duly arrested with the Minton Peacock in his car.
The follow up at the home of Bernard Lyons was much more intriguing, Phillip Capewell had learnt that Bernard Lyons had built a false wall in his home, behind which was stored the stolen ceramics taken from the Worthing home of the worlds leading English ceramic authority Geoffrey Godden.
Phillip Capewell had learnt this from the actual burglar, Andrew Ball, who used to sell his stolen antiques to Bernard Lyons, but was poached by Phillip Capewell with the promise of better prices.
Bernard Lyons was tried and convicted in a similar vein to Capewell and received 2 years jail time for a variety of stolen antiques handling charges.
Harbouring his desire for revenge, Bernard Lyons waited for his time until 2006, when he learnt about Capewell being ready to receive the stolen Aldsworth House antiques.
This was the moment when Bernard Lyons struck back, and the rest, as they say, is history, 5 years jail time for Phillip Capewell.
The sheer ruthlessness of the Brighton Antiques Mafia knows no bounds, why back in the early to mid 1980’s Bernard Lyons informed on his childhood friend David Henty, who was engaged in counterfeit passports.
When Police arrested David Henty they discovered 250 forged passports ready for sale at £1,000 each, £250,000 total, quite big money back then.
However, even if David Henty had not been informed upon he would not have succeeded because he misspelled the word Britannic, spelling it Britanic.
As in "Her Britannic Majesty's" written on the inside cover of a British passport. Check it out you will see, if you have a British passport, it is still there on the European British Passport.
Simple mistake you may think, well truth is David Henty is not the sharpest tool in the box, not one of God’s brightest children, so it is not surprising he made a spelling mistake.
Even to this day David Henty still thinks Itchy Fanny is a Japanese motorbike !!
When asked what happened to Jesus when he went to Mount Olive ?
David Henty replied "Popeye punched Jesus in the mouth"
Upon a much more sinister and disgusting note, Phillip Capewell has a particular liking for under-age pre-pubescent girls and when Phillip Capewell gets drunk he starts shouting out loud:
“I like e’m young and tender, then I shove it up their ass”
which he has done many times over the years.
A particularly nasty tale is that of Phillip Capewells step-daughter, a girl called Sierra, who whilst living with Phillip Capewell and her mother in the 1980’s, was sexually abused and sodomized
over a long period of time by Phillip Capewell.
Perhaps Sussex Police should investigate this matter, it is well known amongst the Brighton Antiques Mafia, Capewell even boasted about it when drunk in the Seafield pub, as well as many other times when Capewell got drunk.
So, you see, behind the facade, Brighton and Hove has a dark shadow hanging over it, emanating from the Art and Antiques trade.
To those who say:
“If the world needed an enema, they'd stick it in Brighton and Hove”
it seems you are correct.
Art Hostage would like to thank the ex-law enforcement Police officers, current Antiques dealers and ex-Brighton Knocker Boys, now wealthy property developers, for their assistance in this story.
Keep it coming guys my readers love it
