In brief
- A Scottish court has sentenced Robert Barr to eight years in prison for orchestrating an attempted theft of up to £2 million ($2.7 million) in cryptocurrency from his cell.
- Barr planned for two accomplices to get the victim to install AnyDesk, which would have allowed him to remotely control the computer and transfer the funds.
- The plot failed after the victims spotted the men on their doorbell camera and refused to open the door.
Scotland's High Court of Justiciary has sentenced to eight years in prison a man who directed an attempted £2 million ($2.7 million) cryptocurrency theft from his cell.
Robert Barr, 29, and Sean Favier, 26, and Iain Doyle, 37, pleaded guilty to involvement in serious organised crime linked to the attempted theft, according to a sentencing statement published by Scotland's Judicial Office on Tuesday. Lord Cubie sentenced Favier to four years and Doyle to five years at the High Court in Glasgow.
"This was a crime which married 21st century computer sophistication with old fashioned housebreaking in an audacious attempt to steal cryptocurrency worth up to £2 million pounds," Lord Cubie said.
According to the court's account, the plan was for Favier and Doyle to enter the victims' home in Midlothian, near Edinburgh, and get the man to use his computer to download AnyDesk, a remote-access program. This would have enabled Barr, who was serving a 21-month sentence for fraud at HMP Edinburgh, to control the computer from prison and transfer the cryptocurrency to wallets he controlled.
The two men arrived at the house at around 11:30 p.m. on April 17, 2024, but the couple saw them on their doorbell camera and would not let them in. Before they left, one of the men looked into the lens and asked if there was a camera in front of him, the BBC reported.
Months of planning
The attempt came after months of preparation, including identifying the victim as a cryptocurrency holder, collecting images of the house and conducting reconnaissance. Investigators pieced this together from Barr's phone, seized in June 2024, the judge said. Messages on the phone "plainly contemplated threats and/or violence," he added.
The victim, a co-founder of a cryptocurrency startup, did not publicise his holdings but followed mostly cryptocurrency-related accounts on social media, according to the BBC. Barr's associates had burgled the house in January 2024 and taken a cryptocurrency wallet, but could not access the funds without its PIN, the court heard.
Prosecutors described Barr as a "sophisticated cybercriminal" able to "orchestrate a level of criminality rarely seen within mainstream investigations." He had a previous conviction for cryptocurrency fraud and organised the new offence while in prison "using plainly illicit means of being in contact or online," Lord Cubie said, describing these as materially aggravating factors.
The judge said the plot was thwarted only because the victims "had the sense not to open their front door" to unknown men with their faces covered. Lord Cubie will consider imposing a serious crime prevention order on Barr on November 17. Barr is also in custody awaiting possible extradition, the judge noted.
A rise in wrench attacks
If the men had got inside, the plot would likely have escalated into a so-called wrench attack, in which criminals use force or the threat of force to make cryptocurrency holders hand over their funds. Such attacks are on course for a record year, with more than $30 million stolen in the first half of 2026, according to a Chainalysis report.
The UK has had several similar cases recently. Three teenagers were jailed earlier this year for stealing $4.3 million in cryptocurrency at knifepoint, and three men were sentenced last month over a failed home invasion intended to steal cryptocurrency. In September, Crimestoppers offered a reward of up to £10,000 for information about an attack on a UK couple in which police believe a fourth man relayed instructions to the three attackers over a video call.
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