A man who orchestrated an attempted £2 million ($2.7 million) cryptocurrency theft from his prison cell has been jailed for eight years by Scotland's High Court of Justiciary.

Robert Barr, 29, pleaded guilty alongside Sean Favier, 26, and Iain Doyle, 37, to involvement in serious organised crime in connection with the attempted theft, according to a sentencing statement published by Scotland's Judicial Office on Tuesday. Lord Cubie sentenced Favier to four years and Doyle to five years at the High Court in Glasgow.

"This was a crime which married 21st century computer sophistication with old fashioned housebreaking in an audacious attempt to steal cryptocurrency worth up to £2 million pounds," Lord Cubie said.

Remote-access plot

Under the plan set out by the court, Favier and Doyle were to gain entry to the victims' home in Midlothian, near Edinburgh, and make the male occupant download AnyDesk, a remote-access program, onto his computer. That would have allowed Barr—who was serving a 21-month sentence at HMP Edinburgh for fraud—to take control of the computer from prison and transfer the cryptocurrency into wallets he controlled.

The two men arrived at the house at around 11:30 p.m. on April 17, 2024, but the couple saw them on their doorbell camera and refused to let them in. According to the BBC, one of the men looked into the lens and asked whether there was a camera in front of him before the pair left.

Months of planning

The attempt followed months of preparation, the judge said, including identifying the victim as a cryptocurrency holder, gathering images of the house, and carrying out reconnaissance. Investigators pieced the plan together from Barr's phone, which was seized in June 2024. Messages recovered from the device "plainly contemplated threats and/or violence," Lord Cubie added.

The victim was a co-founder of a crypto startup who did not advertise his holdings, though he followed mostly crypto-related accounts on social media, per the BBC. Keeping his assets out of public view, however, did not stop him from being identified as a crypto holder during the plotters' preparation. The court also heard that Barr's associates had already burgled the house in January 2024 and taken a crypto wallet, but were unable to access the funds without its PIN. The April scheme involved no such hurdle, relying instead on taking remote control of the victim's own computer to transfer the cryptocurrency out.

"Sophisticated cybercriminal"

Prosecutors described Barr as a "sophisticated cybercriminal" able to "orchestrate a level of criminality rarely seen within mainstream investigations." Lord Cubie said Barr's previous conviction for a crypto fraud, and the fact that he organised the new offence while in prison "using plainly illicit means of being in contact or online," were materially aggravating factors.

The judge said the plot was only frustrated because the victims "had the sense not to open their front door" to unknown men with their faces covered. Lord Cubie will consider a serious crime prevention order against Barr on November 17, and Barr is also in custody awaiting potential extradition, the judge noted.

A rise in wrench attacks

Had the men gotten inside, the plot would likely have escalated into a so-called wrench attack, in which criminals use force or the threat of it to make crypto holders hand over their funds. Such attacks are on pace for a record year, with more than $30 million stolen in the first half of 2026, according to a Chainalysis report.

The UK has seen several recent cases. Three teenagers were jailed earlier this year after stealing $4.3 million in crypto at knifepoint, and three men were sentenced last month over a failed home invasion aimed at stealing crypto. In September, Crimestoppers offered a reward of up to £10,000 for information on an attack on a UK couple in which, police believe, a fourth man relayed instructions to the three attackers over a video call. The sentencing adds to that string of UK prosecutions, showing that even plots which fail at the doorstep can result in multi-year prison terms.