Assets totalling £28 million from gang of international bitcoin fraudsters
Friday, January 17, 2025
We have recovered £28 million worth of assets from a gang of international bitcoin fraudsters.
The fraud began in 2017 when James Parker from Blackpool discovered a glitch in an Australian crypto currency trading website which allowed him to steal money.
He and his co-conspirators then siphoned off more than £20m worth of credits over a three-month period. Parker’s corrupt financial adviser Stephen Boys, who earned the nickname ‘Rodney’ from ‘Only Fools and Horses’, helped launder the stolen funds.
The scam made so much money that £5,000 gift cards were handed out to people in the street and cars were bought for people Parker met in the pub.
During the trial Boys 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.
During the investigation police recovered 445 Bitcoin, then worth £22m, along with luxury watches, houses, cars and designer goods, including a £600 wine cooler,
along with more than £1m in bank accounts. The assets will be returned to the victim.
We worked closely with international law enforcement, including in Australia and Finland, and the Crown Prosecution Service to bring the gang to justice.
James Parker died in 2021 before he could be prosecuted but his co-conspirators were sentenced to the following in January 2023.
Stephen Boys, 61, from Clayton-le-Moors, was jailed for six years for money laundering.
Jordan Robinson, 26, from Fleetwood was jailed for four and a half years for conspiracy to commit fraud, two years for acquisition of criminal property and two years for money laundering.
Kelly Caton, 24, previously of an address in Blackpool was jailed for four and a half years for conspiracy to commit fraud, two years for acquisition of criminal property and two years for money laundering.
James Austin-Beddoes, 30, from Lytham was given a suspended sentence for conspiracy to commit fraud, acquisition of criminal property and for money laundering.
At a Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) hearing held at Preston Crown Court today, it was revealed that our Economic Crime Unit had managed to seize assets totalling £4,029,293.13 from Robinson, £7,928,308.59 from Caton, £11,670,329.30 from Boys, around £8,000,000 from Parker and £1,100 from Austin-Beddoes.
The total loss to the victim was £24.5 million and they have been compensated in full.
Due to the increase in the value of Bitcoin purchased by the offenders, the amount seized outstripped the original fraud by around £3million. The surplus will be split between the Home Office, the courts and Lancashire Police.
