According to Financial Times, 19 July the English court of Surrey, held that local police are entitled to confiscate bitcoins seized from Sergeya Teresko. A native of Latvia Teresko was arrested in April last year.
It happened after partner Teresko and bystanders called the police when their eyes some people grabbed Sergas, put in the car and drove away in an unknown direction. The police searched the house, which was rented by the man, and found major plantation of cannabis. The next day Teresko returned, however, during this time, the police also managed to find the house 263 000 pounds in cash and a collection of expensive watches. In the banking unit of Latvian was discovered gold bullion, precious stones, jewellery and £ 20,000 in cash. Also he had an expensive car.
In addition, the police found the suspect a hardware bitcoin wallet with a 295. While Teresko, who was then 31 years old, never worked. In the end, he was arrested, convicted of money laundering and sentenced to nine-plus years in prison.
After the court decision bitcoin was sold for approximately $1.5 million. Court of Surrey allowed to leave 18.8% of the proceeds from the sale of the funds — about 273 000 pounds in the operational budget of the local police.
In the article the Financial Times explains how the police, having at its disposal a private key from bitcoin, got a digital wallet and using foreign cryptocurrency exchanges cashed assets.
Now British police are trying to expand the knowledge of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which will give her more qualified to investigate crimes in the technological sphere. In the past year, experts with the support of the British group of law enforcement officers proposed to amend the laws of the Kingdom to facilitate the process of confiscation of bitcoins. The special representatives of the research Department of the British police then announced that they intend to raise the awareness of employees in the cryptocurrency through large-scale educational programmes.
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