Housekeeper stole countess’ Picasso in £500,000 haul
Get ready for a lengthy jail sentence, warns judge
A HOUSEKEEPER who stole antiques and art treasures worth £500,000 – including a work by Picasso – from a wealthy countess was yesterday warned she was facing a lengthy jail term.
Kim Roberts admitted to stealing the precious paintings, vases and silverware from Dowager Countess Bathurst’s Cirencester mansion and her London home.
The 58-year- old worked for the countess, 87, and helped herself to the riches, which included a sketch by Picasso and pewter plates, Gloucester Crown Court heard. Roberts’ haul was said to be worth a total of £500,000 at an earlier hearing.
The Bathurst family home, Cirencester Park, houses artistic treasures stretching back more than three centuries to the first Earl Bathurst, who was a patron of art and literature and a friend of authors including Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope.
Among the estate’s collection are portraits by Thomas Gainsborough, George Romney, Peter Lely, and Joshua Reynolds. The 3,000 acre grounds are also home to Cirencester Polo Club. Prince Charles has regularly played there over the years and his sons William and Harry have followed in his footsteps.
Roberts, of Colyton, Devon, yesterday admitted three charges she had previously denied – including burgling the countess’s Kensington home in Lennox Gardens – where the average asking price is more than £4million.
Roberts admitted stealing antique vases between May and August in 2013 and stealing a 4x4 Volvo X90 – worth at least £45,000 – from her previous employer, interior designer Emily Olympitis in October 2012. She also admitted fraud after dishonestly telling a domestic household staff recruitment agency that she was born in 1958.
At a hearing last year, Roberts admitted stealing art and antiques belonging to the countess between April and May 2013. But she had claimed she was guilty only because the property was put in her car by mistake. Yesterday her barrister Simon Burns said she had now abandoned that claim and fully accepted her responsibility.
Her victim – Gloria, the Dowager Countess of Bathurst – is the widow of the eighth Earl Bathurst, Henry, who died in 2011 aged 84. Their son Allen, formerly Lord Apsley, is now the 9th Earl and lives in the Cirencester Park mansion house with his wife Sara.
The Bathursts are one of England’s oldest families, originating from Sussex where they owned Bathurst Castle until they were dispossessed of their lands by Edward IV in 1463, after siding with the Lancastrians in the War of the Roses.
Roberts did deny three charges yesterday, including stealing antique silver hairbrushes from Lady Juliet Worsley, and another theft – of items including a television and a DVD player.
She also denied possession of stolen property including a Mont Blanc pen, items of clothing and several accessories.
The Crown Prosecution Service has until today to accept her pleas and allow the charges she denies to rest.
Roberts’ lawyer told the court he had spoken to the prosecution and believed her guilty pleas would be accepted and that the other charges would not be proceeded with.
Judge Jamie Tabor QC gave the prosecution 24 hours to dispute this and released Roberts on bail until May 7 so a pre-sentence report can be prepared by the probation service.
And he told Roberts to expect a prison sentence, saying: ‘I don’t want you to be under any illusions about the sentence you will receive. You should make arrangements prior to that date on the basis that you are going to be away for some time.’