Bitcoin scam gang struggled to spend money – police
image source, Lancashire Police
James Parker became known as the Bitcoin millionaire, police said
A £21m Bitcoin scam netted a Blackpool-based gang so much money they struggled to spend, police said.
James Parker used a bug on a trading website to extract money with the help of Kelly Caton, Stephen Boys, Jordan Robinson and James Austin-Beddoes.
They made money so quickly that Parker bought cars for strangers and gave away £5,000 vouchers to try and manage the proceeds, Lancashire Police said.
But it fell apart when Caton reported her Bitcoin stolen to the police.
Parker initiated the scheme from his council flat in Blackpool after he discovered a bug on a cryptocurrency trading website in October 2017 which allowed him to take other people’s money, police said.
He and his co-conspirators took in a “staggering” £21 million in cryptocurrency credit over a three-month period, Chief Constable David Wainwright told BBC North West Tonight.
Parker used the services of Boys, nicknamed Rodney from the BBC One comedy Only Fools and Horses, to help him launder the stolen funds through various accounts around the world.
image source, Lancashire Police
The gang struggled to spend the money, Police Chief David Wainwright said
The scam was first discovered when Caton, 45, from Blackpool, called police to report that her daughter had stolen 15 Bitcoins, which at the time were worth around £75,000.
– That was the call to the police [that] made us wonder ‘how does this lady living in modest circumstances, a very small rented home in Blackpool, have such hidden wealth’?’ Police Chief Wainwright said.
What was solved was one of the biggest fraud cases Lancashire Police has been involved with.
He said such was the scale, the gang “struggled to spend the money”.
“The wealth they came across was probably too much for them to fathom.”
image source, Lancashire Police
Stephen Boys (far right) acted as financial adviser, while both Robinson and Caton helped manager James Parker cash out
Det Sgt Wainwright said Parker, who moved out of his flat and into a hotel, bought cars for around 20 people – including random people he met in a pub – and that he also handed out £5,000 gift vouchers to strangers on the street to give tips. taxi drivers £50.
“It’s the kind of thing you see in movies and think it would never happen in real life,” he said.
“He got a bit of a reputation around the Fylde Coast as a Bitcoin millionaire, but he kept the source of that a secret until the police found out.”
Det Sgt Wainwright said he is now working to recover as much of the money as possible to return it to the victims of the scam.
Parker died in 2021 before he could be prosecuted, but his corrupt financial adviser Boys, 59, from Accrington, as well as Robinson, 24, from Fleetwood, Caton and James Austin-Beddoes, 28, from Lytham St Annes, were jailed on Friday at Preston Crown Court for several fraud offences.
Gutter was found guilty of converting and transferring criminal property and jailed for six years.
Caton and Robinson both received sentences of four years and six months in prison after being convicted of fraud, conversion and acquisition of criminal property.
Austin-Beddoes, 28, of St Annes, was found guilty of fraud and obtaining criminal property and admitted converting criminal property and was jailed for 18 months, suspended for a year.
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