Three Bitcoin scammers have been jailed after fraudulently gaining more money than they could spend. Preston Crown Court heard how Stephen Boys, Jordan Robinson and Kelly Caton ended up lavishly splashing the cash by handing out £5,000 gift vouchers to random strangers and buying cars for people they met in the pub.
The scam began in 2017 when James Parker spotted a glitch in an Australian cryptocurrency trading website, Lancs Live reported. Parker - who died in 2021 before he could be prosecuted - and his co-conspirators were able to exploit the error by siphoning off more than £20m worth of credits over a three-month period.
The gang of fraudsters, from Blackpool, splurged the cash on luxury items such as designer watches and expensive wine coolers. Police recovered 445 Bitcoin - then worth £22m - in addition to luxury watches, houses, cars and designer goods, including a £600 wine cooler, along with more than £1m in bank accounts.
Parker’s corrupt financial adviser Boys, who earned the nickname ‘Del Boy’, like the character from Only Fools and Horses, helped launder the stolen funds. During the trial he told the court how he took £1,000,000 cash in a suitcase to buy a villa from Russians he met in the back office of an estate agent and paid £60,000 to pay off corrupt officials so he could carry on laundering money.
Boys, 59 of Winster Court, Clayton le Moors was sentenced to six years for converting criminal property. Robinson 24, of Poulton Road, Fleetwood received four-and-a-half years for conspiracy to commit fraud, two years for acquisition of criminal property and two years for converting criminal property.
Caton, 45, Livingstone Road, Blackpool received a sentence of four-and-a-half years for conspiracy to commit fraud, two years for acquisition of criminal property and two years for converting criminal property. A fourth fraudster, 28-year-old James Auston-Beddoes, of Brighton Avenue, Lytham, received a sentence of one-and-a-half years for conspiracy to commit fraud, as well as one year for acquisition of criminal property and one year for converting criminal property. His sentence has been suspended for 1 year.
Lancashire Police worked closely with international law enforcement, including in Australia and Finland, and the Crown Prosecution Service to bring the gang to justice. The fraudsters were convicted last year and sentenced last week, (Friday January 13).
Det Sgt David Wainwright, of Lancashire Police’s Fraud Unit, said: “The scale of the fraud in this case is absolutely staggering and led to the suspects literally having more money than they could spend. I would like to pay tribute to all the agencies who worked closely together to bring these people to justice.”
Jonathan Kelleher of the CPS said: “These offenders used the internet from the comfort of their own homes to obtain tens of millions of pounds worth of Bitcoin which did not belong to them. Cyber-enabled crime presents an increasing threat to international economic stability, as well as to honest individual investors in cryptocurrency.
“The CPS advised our police partners throughout this international investigation. Painstaking analysis of vast amounts of digital material and collaborative liaison with the Australian and Finnish authorities enabled us to mount a successful prosecution against these criminals.”
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