Ex-officer must repay £1.8m for stolen Bitcoin

Matty Edwards

Bristol

A former National Crime Agency (NCA) officer will have to repay £1.8m after stealing the valuable cryptocurrency Bitcoin he seized during an investigation.

Paul Chowles, 44, from Bristol, was jailed for five and a half years at Liverpool Crown Court last year after pleading guilty to theft and money laundering.

After his part in an NCA investigation into criminals selling illegal goods on the dark web, Chowles transferred about half of the Bitcoin seized from a drug trafficker into his own accounts.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) secured a confiscation order earlier that is equal to the value of the 30 Bitcoin recovered from Chowles, which has ballooned from £36,000 to more than £1.8m.

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As part of the team working on the case, Chowles took part in the analysis and extraction of cryptocurrency from digital devices seized during the investigation.

This ultimately led to Thomas White being jailed in 2019 for 64 months after he was found to have sold illegal goods to criminal networks on the dark website Silk Road 2.0.

Following the seizure of 97 Bitcoin from White, it was noticed that 50 Bitcoin had been withdrawn from the digital wallet.

The NCA assumed White had somehow accessed the wallet while in custody, but he denied any involvement.

In fact it was Chowles who had taken the Bitcoin from the confiscated wallet in 2017, and then attempted to cover his tracks through a series of cryptocurrency transactions.

An investigation was launched by Merseyside Police into the stolen Bitcoin and Chowles was arrested in May 2022. A total of 30 Bitcoin was subsequently recovered from him.

Luke Clements, of the CPS proceeds of crime division, said the former NCA officer had “exploited a position of trust for personal gain”.

“Confiscation Orders are a powerful tool in ensuring that crime does not pay,” he said.

“Today’s order sends a clear message that we will pursue offenders’ assets relentlessly and seek to recover criminal proceeds wherever they are hidden.”