Bitcoin fraud gang struggled to spend money

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James Parker has become the Bitcoin millionaire, police say

A 21 million bitcoin fraud has made so much money for a Blackpool-based gang that it has struggled to spend it, police said.

James Parker used a glitch on a trading website to siphon off cash with help from 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 all came crashing down when Caton reported his bitcoin to the police.

Parker orchestrated the plot from his council flat in Blackpool after discovering a glitch on a cryptocurrency trading website in October 2017 that allowed him to take other people’s money, police said.

He and his co-conspirators siphoned off an “absolutely staggering” 21 million worth of cryptocurrency credits over a three-month period, Detective Sergeant David Wainwright told BBC North West Tonight.

Parker used the services of Boys, nicknamed Rodney in the BBC One comedy Only Fools and Horses, to help him launder stolen funds through various accounts around the world.

The gang struggled to spend the money, Detective Sergeant David Wainwright said

The fraud was only discovered when Caton, 45, from Blackpool, called the police and reported that his daughter had stolen 15 Bitcoins, which at the time were worth around 75,000.

“It was that call to the police [that] made us wonder ‘how does this lady who lives in modest circumstances, a very small rented house in Blackpool, have such hidden wealth’?” Detective Sergeant Wainwright said.

What emerged was one of the biggest fraud cases Lancashire Police have been involved in.

He said such was the scale of the thing, the gang was “struggling to spend the money”.

“The wealth they encountered was probably too much for them to understand each other.”

Stephen Boys (far right) acted as financial adviser, while Robinson and Caton helped frontman James Parker withdraw cash.

Detective Sergeant Wainwright said Parker, who moved out of his flat and moved into a hotel, bought cars for around 20 people – including random people he met in a pub – and that he handed out 5,000 gift certificates to strangers on the street as well as tips taxi drivers 50.

“It’s the kind of thing you see in movies and think would never happen in real life,” he said.

The story continues

“He gained quite a reputation around the Fylde coast as a bitcoin millionaire, but he kept the source very secret until the police found out.”

Detective Sergeant Wainwright said he was now working to recover as much money as possible to return to the victims of the fraud.

Parker died in 2021 before he could be prosecuted, but his corrupt financial adviser Boys, 59, of Accrington, as well as Robinson, 24, of Fleetwood, Caton and James Austin-Beddoes, 28, of Lytham St Annes, were sentenced to prison terms. on Friday at Preston Crown Court on multiple counts of fraud.

Boys was convicted of conversion and transfer of criminal property and jailed for six years.

Caton and Robinson were both sentenced to four years and six months in prison after being found guilty of fraud, conversion and acquisition of criminal property.

Austin-Beddoes, 28, of St Annes, was convicted of fraud and acquisition of criminal property and admitted converting criminal property and was jailed for 18 months, suspended for one year.

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