Scottish Prosecutors Seize Bitcoin In Landmark Robbery Case

According to Cointelegraph, Scottish prosecutors have seized 23.5 Bitcoin from a man involved in a 2020 robbery, marking the first instance of cryptocurrency seizure in the country. The robbery, which took place near Glasgow, involved three men armed with a machete and a Toblerone chocolate bar breaking into a home. This case, initially heard last year, was notable for being the first in Scotland to involve tracing stolen cryptocurrency, according to Detective Inspector Craig Potter from Police Scotland’s Cyber Investigations unit. In a groundbreaking move, prosecutors utilized proceeds of crime legislation to seize and convert the stolen Bitcoin into cash. The court proceedings revealed that the home invasion occurred in Blantyre, southeast of Glasgow, where one of the intruders repeatedly beat a woman with a personalized Toblerone bar and threw her into a bedroom. The victim, who remains unnamed for legal reasons, testified that he awoke to find a man standing over him with a machete, forcing him to transfer Bitcoin. The assailant then made a throat-slitting gesture with the bloodied Toblerone bar before fleeing with the other two men. Lawyers at Edinburgh’s High Court agreed on Sept. 3 to convert the 23.5 BTC into cash, amounting to 109,601 British pounds, or approximately $144,017 US dollars. This sum reflects the value of Bitcoin at the time of the robbery in March 2020, when it was trading at around $5,400. Since then, the price of Bitcoin has surged nearly 1,000%. The Bitcoin was seized from John Ross Rennie, who was convicted of possessing stolen goods in November. Prosecutors identified Rennie as the “technical brains” behind the raid, although he denied involvement, claiming a relative forced him to deposit the Bitcoin in an exchange account. However, Edinburgh High Court judge Lord Scott emphasized Rennie’s pivotal role in instructing how to transfer the Bitcoin. As part of his conviction, Rennie was sentenced to 150 hours of unpaid work and a six-month supervision order.