Scot Jailed 8 Years for £2M Crypto Theft Plot Run From Prison

Scotland's High Court in Glasgow on November 10, 2026 sentenced three men over an attempt to steal up to £2 million in cryptocurrency, about $2.7 million according to Decrypt. Robert Barr received eight years, Iain Doyle five and Sean Favier four. All three pleaded guilty to involvement in serious organised crime.

Details

According to the Scottish Judiciary's sentencing statement, the plan was for Doyle and Favier to get into the victims' home and force the owner onto his computer to install the remote-access program AnyDesk. Barr, who was in prison, would then have taken control of the couple's machine and moved their crypto to accounts he controlled.

Preparation took months and included gathering information on the victims, surveillance and pinning down the exact house. Investigators pieced it together from Barr's phone. On April 17, 2024, at about 11:30 p.m., Favier and Doyle rang the doorbell, but the victims saw them on camera and did not open the door. Judge Lord Cubie said the crime "married 21st century computer sophistication with old fashioned housebreaking." The court noted that the messages contemplated threats or violence.

Barr was already serving 21 months for an earlier crypto fraud, which the court treated as an aggravating factor. His new sentence runs from August 25, 2025, and a decision on a serious crime prevention order against him is due on November 17.

What it means for the market

The case shows how attacks on crypto holders increasingly mix physical pressure with remote access to devices. It has no direct effect on prices, but it is a reminder of basic precautions: do not advertise your holdings, never install remote-access software at a stranger's request, and keep large sums on a hardware wallet. We covered a similar case in our report on the UK home-invasion sentences. For market prices, see the daily brief.