John-Ross Rennie, a 29-year-old Scottish man, was convicted on Tuesday (28) of involvement in a personal Bitcoin theft. According to the BBC, Rennie was the mastermind behind the operation where the criminals invaded the victim’s home armed with a machete and a Toblerone chocolate bar, forcing her to hand over her cryptocurrencies.
Information from the case shows that the group stole 23.5 Bitcoins, equivalent to R$675,000 on the date of the crime, March 2020. Today, the same amount is estimated at R$4.4 million due to the increase in the value of Bitcoin in the past three years.
In any case, the Scot was not arrested; he was sentenced to only 150 hours of community service, in addition to six months of supervised release.
The victim’s brother was woken up with a machete, the woman was hit with a chocolate bar
Cryptocurrency thefts are common in the industry. Every year, several brokers and users who are more inattentive to their security report that they are victims of these types of crimes.
However, the case that took place in Scotland is rarer because it was a personal robbery. To make the story even more disturbing, the victim’s brother claims to have been woken up by one of the bandits with a machete.
A woman who was also in the house was beaten with a knife. “personalized Toblerone bar”. Although it is not clear what the personalization of this object would be, the name refers to a well-known Swiss chocolate in a triangular shape.
Leaving the house, already with the bitcoins in their wallets, the criminals made the gesture of “slitting the throat” with the bloody Toblerone bar while driving an Audi car.
The man involved in the robbery did not go to jail
Considered by local media to be the mastermind of the heist, John-Ross Rennie is said to have received the bitcoins in his wallet after spending some of them, proving his involvement. However, he declared himself innocent and said he had no connection with the crime. Rennie was sentenced to only 150 hours of community service.
“After initially being charged with theft while trading with a third party, you have been found guilty of stealing a quantity of cryptocurrency, namely 23.5 bitcoins agreed in your name worth £109,601.46 at the time transfer to your Bitcoin account,” the court ruling points out.
The other three people who broke into the victim’s home have not been identified. According to local media, the victim also did not have ‘clean hands’, because he was accused of internet fraud. His identity was also not revealed. The bitcoins were not returned to the victim.
Source: Live Coins
Barry Siefert is an accomplished journalist and author at The Nation View. He is known for his expertise in the field of cryptocurrency, and has written extensively on the topic. With a background in finance and economics, Barry has a deep understanding of the underlying technology and market forces that drive the crypto industry.
