UK Jails Three Men Over £4M Crypto Scam Posing as Police

Three Men Jailed Over £4M Crypto Police Scam

The Met said Anthony Ikenwe, 29, and Kevin Nwamma, 25, were each given six years for conspiracy to defraud and five years for money laundering, with the terms running concurrently. Hamza Bashir, 23, received three years and nine months for conspiracy to defraud and three years for money laundering, also concurrent.

According to police, the group contacted victims by telephone, claimed to be police officers and said cryptocurrency held by the targets was at risk. Victims were then induced to hand over account details or transfer holdings to accounts they believed police controlled.

The operation relied on more than a phone call. Investigators said the group built convincing-looking police websites, then used aliases, telephone numbers, websites, wallets and spending patterns to connect offences that initially appeared separate. The Met said the proceeds were immediately laundered after theft.

Officers executed coordinated warrants at seven addresses in London and Essex on November 20, 2025, seizing 40 mobile phones, luxury goods and crypto assets. Police said the devices and computers supplied extensive evidence, while roughly £1 million in crypto was directly linked to victim funds.

The matter is distinct from an unauthorized-wallet exploit or an exchange hack. The alleged entry point was social engineering, where a criminal gains control by persuading a person to act. That method can defeat a hardware wallet or other secure device if the owner is convinced to approve a transfer or disclose access information.

Fake Police Websites Turned Trust Into Stolen Crypto

The Met said Ikenwe and Nwamma pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to defraud and money-laundering offences. Bashir initially denied involvement but changed his plea during the eighth day of trial after being presented with evidence, according to the force.

Police reported that the defendants’ spending did not match their stated income. One had recorded income of £444 a year, while the investigation identified a car worth almost £60,000 bought with crypto, about £500,000 in cash in a Dubai safety-deposit box and more than £26,000 in luxury goods recovered during searches.

Those figures are investigative findings, not a full accounting of the victims’ losses or a guarantee of restitution. The Met said financial records showed criminally linked crypto was routinely converted into payment cards, and it continues work to recover assets for victims.

The case gives concrete context to a UK fraud review’s call for judicial training on crypto money laundering. That review described the evidentiary burden created by complex, cross-border fraud; the Met’s account shows how wallet tracing, exchange records and communications can be assembled into a prosecution.

For recipients of unsolicited calls, the force’s courier-fraud guidance says impersonators may claim an account has been compromised and ask a target to move funds to a so-called safe account. A real agency does not need a resident’s seed phrase, private key, exchange password or transfer to a new wallet to secure an investigation.

Met Asset Recovery Leaves Victims With More to Watch

The roughly £1 million directly tied to victims is significant but below the more than £4 million police said was stolen. The public announcement does not identify the cryptocurrencies, the tokens’ values at theft, the destination of all remaining funds or a timetable for compensation.

That gap is familiar in crypto-fraud cases. An earlier Ghana-UK recovery effort showed how tracing and freezing can support restitution, but successful convictions and successful recovery are separate stages with different legal and practical barriers.

The Met said it will keep working with UK and international partners to identify additional conspirators and recover criminal assets for victims. The next material update will be whether further assets are restrained or returned, rather than a change in the prison terms already handed down.

The market backdrop does not alter the case, but it helps explain the continuing attention to custody and social-engineering risks. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index at 25 marked Extreme Fear on July 18, while fraudsters’ use of trusted institutions remains a risk in both weak and strong trading periods.