Prisoner bags fresh eight-year sentence over £2M crypto heist plotted from Scottish cell

Robert Barr never had to leave his cell to try to steal £2 million in cryptocurrency. While he was serving time at HMP Edinburgh for smuggled phones and fraud, he used an illicit handset to direct two accomplices towards a victim’s home.

That action has bagged him eight years of jail time, as a Glasgow court found him guilty and sentenced him.

What job did Barr run from behind bars?

Barr, 29, was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow after pleading guilty, alongside Sean Favier, 26, and Iain Doyle, 37, to involvement in serious organized crime.

Favier was sentenced to four years in jail, while Doyle got five years. The sentencing statement came from Scotland’s Judicial Office.

According to the prosecutors, Barr was the head of the operation. The judge, Lord Cubie, read out a prosecution description of a man able “to orchestrate a level of criminality rarely seen within mainstream investigations.”

The judge said the plot “married 21st century computer sophistication with old fashioned housebreaking.”

What made the crime possible was a phone that should never have been inside the prison. When Barr had access to it, he was already serving a 21-month term partly for possessing illicit mobiles.

Why the plan needed AnyDesk

Barr wanted Favier and Doyle to get inside the victims’ house and pressure the homeowner into installing AnyDesk, a program that lets one person control another computer from anywhere.

It would have given Barr access and the ability to control the victim’s computer from his cell.

Barr’s plan was to use the software to paste in a receiving wallet address and move victims’ crypto holdings into accounts that he controlled.

The gang’s failed break-in attempts

One of the attempts to get to the victims, who are a couple, was on April 17, 2024. The couple was at home when their doorbell rang around 11:30 pm. The husband reportedly looked out, saw two men in dark clothing with hoods up, and told his wife not to open the door. He did not know them and was not expecting anyone.

They spoke through the video doorbell instead. One of the men stared into the lens and asked whether there was a camera in front of him.

The pair then covered their faces when they thought that they were being recorded. They were not able to gain entry into the apartment, and there was no recorded theft that day.

That incident was the second attempt on the property. Thieves reportedly raided the same property in January of the same year. The target was still the same: a cofounder of a crypto startup.

They made off with a hardware wallet; however, they could not open it without the PIN and were unable to access the funds there.

How were Barr and his associates caught?

The device that enabled the plot was also what enabled authorities to catch the bad actors. Police seized Barr’s phone on June 25, 2024.

Evidence of his role in the organization and provision of technical support to associates running crypto thefts was found on the phone, and that included his instructions to Favier and Doyle.

The UK has also seen an increase in physical attacks on crypto holders recently. In August, a jury convicted five men after they kidnapped and tortured two men who were said to be crypto millionaires for 52 hours.

Another incident that occurred in October saw a crypto trader lose $800,000 in a home-invasion robbery.

Don’t just read crypto news. Understand it. Subscribe to our newsletter. It's free.