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Scottish court jails man for 8 years for plotting a $2.7 million crypto theft from his prison cell
⚪NeutralA criminal case about a physical theft plot; it highlights security risks for holders but does not affect any asset's fundamentals.News sentiment, not financial advice. It reflects the likely impact of this news, not a price prediction.
Summary
Scotland's High Court of Justiciary has jailed Robert Barr for eight years for directing an attempted theft of up to £2 million ($2.7 million) in cryptocurrency from his prison cell, Decrypt and The Block reported.
According to the court's sentencing statement, cited by Decrypt, two accomplices were to get into a crypto holder's home near Edinburgh and force him to install the remote-access program AnyDesk so Barr could move the funds from prison.
The plot failed on April 17, 2024, when the couple saw the masked men on their doorbell camera and refused to open the door, Decrypt reported.
Barr's accomplices, Sean Favier and Iain Doyle, received four and five years respectively, according to Decrypt.
Key facts
- Decrypt: Barr, 29, was serving a 21-month sentence for fraud at HMP Edinburgh at the time; all three men pleaded guilty to involvement in serious organised crime.
- Judge Lord Cubie, quoted by Decrypt: "This was a crime which married 21st century computer sophistication with old fashioned housebreaking."
- Decrypt: investigators reconstructed months of planning from Barr's phone, seized in June 2024, and the judge said messages on it "plainly contemplated threats and/or violence."
- Decrypt: Barr's associates had burgled the same house in January 2024 and taken a crypto wallet but could not access it without its PIN.
- Decrypt: the judge will consider a serious crime prevention order against Barr on Nov. 17.