British police unexpectedly made half a million pounds on bitcoins
Date: 2025-08-06 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: IN WORLD
Lancashire County Police in the UK made a net profit of £500,000 thanks to confiscated bitcoins. Several years ago, criminals stole a large sum of money and converted it into cryptocurrency. After their arrest and trial, the assets were seized and subsequently sold. During the investigation, the value of bitcoins increased significantly.
The crime related to the theft of funds was solved in December 2017. It then turned out that the perpetrators decided to cover their tracks by converting the stolen funds into cryptocurrency. As a result of the trial, the thieves were convicted, and the bitcoins were frozen until the end of the trial.
The sale of crypto assets took place years later, and ultimately brought in income significantly exceeding the original amount of damage. The victim received a full refund of the stolen funds. However, due to the fact that the law does not allow compensation to be paid in excess of the damage incurred, a significant amount of money remained - about £1 million.
The court ruled that this remainder should be divided equally between the UK Home Office and Lancashire Constabulary. According to local police, this situation is extremely unusual, since the value of stolen assets rarely increases during the investigation.
The police emphasized that the remaining funds will be used to develop anti-crime initiatives. The money will go to a special fund formed from the confiscated property. This fund has previously been used to purchase high-tech equipment, including drones and spam call blocking systems, as well as to support projects to combat crime and antisocial behavior.
The UK has been using the practice of confiscating cryptocurrencies for several years. In 2021, London police seized digital assets worth $250 million as part of an international investigation into money laundering. And in 2024, $1.77 billion in crypto assets were seized in connection with a major financial fraud linked to China.
British law enforcement agencies have previously sold such assets through auctions. A similar approach has been used in other countries, with Belgian police also selling seized bitcoins at auction.
