UK firm auctioning luxury goods stashed in 'garden shed'
Lot 1 in the sale is a Rolex wristwatch: Rolex Cosmograph Daytona in 18K yellow gold, model 116528, 39mm case, serial no. D446753
John Pye Auctions are selling luxury goods, antiques and artworks seized by the police from Shedley Manor in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, and auctioned in a bankruptcy sale.
Shedley Manor was home to Alan Yeomans, 61, now jailed for six and a half years. He disguised the property as a farm shed and crammed it with valuable items of every kind from art and antiques to expensive luxury goods such as shoes, watches, handbags and other valuable personal items.
The auction is now live online and public viewing is available on Monday, Sept. 10 and Thursday, Sept. 13 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at John Pye’s Marchington auction hub in Staffordshire.
Antique stash
Yeomans concealed his six-bedroom home by using green cladding and a corrugated steel roof so the property’s role as a luxurious home could not be seen from the road. He had told officials he was bankrupt and living in a shed in his mother's garden with just £300 worth of furniture and a £30 watch to his name.
A police spokesman said that when they raided the property they were amazed to find it was filled with antiques, oil paintings and valuable jewelry, a veritable Aladdin’s Cave.
Behind an oil painting was a secret door that opened to reveal a secret room planned and built by Alan Yeomans, which had been used to grow cannabis. He powered all of this by using [stolen] electricity from a source near his house which was exceptionally dangerous and could very well have killed him.
Faced with the evidence gathered by police during the operation, Alan Yeomans had no choice but to plead guilty to a wide variety of [drug-related and money-laundering] offenses.
Trevor Palethorpe, National Head of Corporate Valuations at John Pye Auctions said: “This is a most unusual sale of a very wide variety of luxury items that could provide a bargain for art and fashion lovers. During his bankruptcy interview Mr. Yeomans declared that he only owned one wristwatch which he valued at £30, the 18k Gold Rolex Daytona in question we would estimate to make at around 350 times that figure and it would have retailed for around £25,000 ”
