Stolen £1m Stanley Spencer painting returned to owners after being found under drug dealer’s bed

The valuable work, titled Cookham from Englefield, was stolen from the Stanley Spencer Gallery, Berkshire, in 2012.

It was missing for five years until detectives arrested Harry Fisher, 28, after they stopped a Mercedes in Strood, Kent, last June, and found one kilogram of cocaine and £30,000 in cash.

Officers later discovered the artwork next to three kilograms of cocaine and 15,000 ecstasy tablets under a bed during a raid of Fisher’s flat in Kingston-Upon-Thames, south west London.

A search of Fisher’s family home in nearby Fulham turned up more class A drugs, with the total haul worth up to £450,000.

The owners of the Stanley Spencer work, who were said to be “devastated” by the 2012 raid, have now finally been reunited with the painting.

Arts minister Michael Ellis said: “Spencer is one our most renowned painters and a true great of the 20th century.

“It is wonderful that this story has had a happy ending and the painting has been returned to its rightful owners.”

Detective constable Sophie Hayes said the Met’s art and antiques unit was “delighted to assist with the recovery and return of this important painting”.

She added: “The circumstances of its recovery underline the links between cultural heritage crime and wider criminality.”

Fisher was jailed for eight years after being sentenced at Kingston Crown Court.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs, acquiring criminal property and handling stolen goods.

A passenger in his vehicle, Zak Lal, 32, of Strood, Rochester, was also jailed for five years and eight months after admitting conspiracy to supply class A drugs, acquiring criminal property and possession of an offensive weapon at the same hearing.

A search of Lal’s family address revealed £2,000 in cash and a number of disposable mobile phones.