Scotland's first case tracking stolen bitcoin hits dead end

Police in Scotland have admitted that $200,000 in stolen bitcoin will likely never be recovered following a robbery involving a weaponized Toblerone and a machete. In addition, one of the raided victims has been accused of taking part in online fraud. 

In 2020, bitcoin then worth $200,000 was forcibly transferred to a crypto wallet by three masked individuals in a Scottish home raid. The three reportedly brandished a machete and used a large personalized Toblerone to beat one of the victims over the head. 

Police tracked the stolen crypto to the wallet of 29-year-old Lanarkshire man John-Ross Rennie, in what was described as the first case of bitcoin robbery to involve tracing in Scotland. However, despite tracking the crypto to Rennie, police say they haven’t been able to seize the stolen funds.

As reported by Glasgow Live, Detective Inspector Craig Potter said siezure “relies on the funds being there and being able to access them. In this case by the time we got to Mr Rennie the funds were long gone, they’d been moved out.”

Police track $200K bitcoin robbery in Scottish first

Read more: 20-year-old imprisoned for $1M crypto SIM-swap scam

Two men and women were reportedly victims of the robbery. One of the victims is reportedly now facing legal action for their alleged involvement in online fraud. 

Rennie was convicted on the charge of reset last week; the act of knowingly possessing criminally obtained goods. He was not present for the robbery and insisted he had no knowledge of the raid. The three masked individuals involved in the raid are yet to be caught. 

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