Crypto scammer wanted over fraud allegations in America wants jail time in Scotland’s ‘much nicer’ prison system

A Scottish scammer seeking to serve more than £7million online fraud charges in America would prefer to serve his jail sentence in Scotland because it has a ‘much nicer prison system’, a court has heard.

Robert Barr was jailed for 21 months at Airdrie Sheriff Court last week for hacking into the email accounts of a cryptocurrency trader in England.

He committed the crime while out on bail for the alleged US fraud.

The 27-year-old and an accomplice stole around £3,000 and were only stopped from receiving a further £33,000 when the victim called in security experts to prevent any money being transferred.

After the hearing, Barr, from Biggar, Lanarkshire, appeared in court Edinburgh for the latest chapter in his long-running fight against extradition to the US.

But his lawyer, Fred Mackintosh, told the Airdrie hearing last Wednesday what bothers Barr attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but added: ‘He accepts full responsibility. He knew very well what he was doing.’

Robert Barr, from Biggar, Lanarkshire, is fighting extradition to the US, where he could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of alleged fraud

The court was told Barr has spent much of the past two years in custody in connection with the extradition case.

Mr Mackintosh added: ‘If he is extradited to America and convicted he would receive a very long sentence.

“If he were in prison today, he would probably want to serve his sentence in this country because it’s a much nicer prison system than America, but that’s not up to him.”

He was arrested after the FBI named him as a suspect in a massive cryptocurrency fraud.

It is alleged that Barr and his associates stole £7 million in digital money from New York-based financier Reggie Middleton.

They allegedly used the victim’s phone number to access his email and other accounts before changing passwords and tracking down cryptocurrency addresses.

A second unnamed victim is said to have lost £485,000 from her accounts in a similar scam.

The alleged fraud dates back to 2017.

Barr, who faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, is alleged to have committed the crimes from his mother’s home in Kilbirnie, Ayrshire.

The extradition case has been further postponed until next month.

Barr had previously admitted to defrauding and attempting to defraud English cryptocurrency trader Christopher Morley between May 11 and June 23, 2022 – four months after he was granted bail in connection with the extradition case.

The court heard that a man posing as Mr Morley made a telephone request to reset the password to his Sky email account.

This was done, giving Barr and his accomplice access to digital wallets containing Mr Morley’s cryptocurrency assets.

He discovered that his account had been hacked and an Ethereum cryptocurrency worth around £3,000 was missing.

Further sums worth £33,000 were at risk of disappearing in staged transactions, but Mr Morely engaged a firm of specialists to the tune of £2,500 to intervene and prevent this.

An IP address linked to Barr was found and police, armed with a search warrant, raided his home in Biggar. They confiscated an Apple Macbook Pro and an iPhone. These include details of Mr Morley’s email and cryptocurrency accounts.

Passing sentence on Barr, Sheriff Derek Livingston told Barr: “This was quite a complex fraud and well planned.

‘I have to take that into account, but also the fact that you have a certain degree of insight into what you have done and accept your guilt. Otherwise the punishment I impose would be a lot higher.’