£110,000 taken from a convicted criminal

In a landmark case in Scotland, £110,000 (worth approximately $144,384) has been seized from 29-year-old John Ross Rennie. This is the first time that proceeds of crime legislation have been used to seize cryptocurrency as physical cash.

This case was decided at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Violent robbery

Rennie from Cambuslang was convicted of possession of stolen property following a violent robbery in Blantyre, south-east Glasgow, in March 2020. The court heard last year that three men carried out a home invasion where the victim woke up to find a man next to him with a machete. , forcing him to transfer 23.5 Bitcoin, equivalent to £109,601.

During the attack, a woman at the property was repeatedly hit with a custom Toblerone bar and thrown into a bedroom. The attacker then made a “throat-slitting gesture” with the bloody chocolate bar before running away.

Although Rennie denied involvement in the theft, he was identified as the “technical mastermind” behind the operation, providing expertise on how to transfer the cryptocurrency, according to a BBC report earlier this week.

Despite his role, Rennie received a relatively lenient sentence of 150 hours of unpaid work and a six-month supervision order. On September 3, lawyers at the High Court in Edinburgh agreed that Bitcoin could be converted into cash.

Crypto crime on the rise in the UK

In response to the rise in crypto-crime across the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority, which oversees the financial services sector, dedicated 30% of its financial crime specialists, or 15.8 staff , to concentrate on crypto asset companies.

The UK Home Office announced new powers in April this year that allow law enforcement to seize cryptocurrencies linked to criminal activity without the need to make an arrest. These rules, implemented after last year’s crime bill, aim to seize illicit assets more quickly.

Meanwhile, police have deployed crypto-tactical advisors across the country, leading to the seizure of hundreds of millions of pounds in digital assets.

Also, in January, a joint investigation by the US National Crime Agency and Drug Enforcement Administration into a drug ring led to the seizure of $150 million in cash and cryptocurrency.

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