A former National Crime Agency (NCA) officer has been ordered to pay more than £1.8 million after stealing Bitcoin worth over £4 million from a dark web drugs dealer he helped convict. Paul Chowles, 44, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday (30 September) for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing, where Judge Dennis Watson KC ruled he must repay £1,810,678.93 within three months or face an additional month in prison.
Stolen Bitcoin from Silk Road operator
Chowles was part of the NCA squad that arrested Thomas White, a Liverpool John Moores University dropout who ran the dark web marketplace Silk Road 2.0. During the investigation, the NCA seized a USB device containing 97 Bitcoin from White's flat on Mann Island, Liverpool. In May 2017, while the device remained in NCA custody, Chowles secretly transferred 50 Bitcoin—then worth about £59,409.90—into his own possession using the dark web mixing service Bitcoin Fog.
He then moved the funds into personal accounts, including one under the alias "Friendly P" linked to a newly created email address in the name "P Charles" and purportedly located in the Netherlands. Chowles, described as the "very technically minded and knowledgeable" arresting officer and principal investigator in the original case, spent approximately £140,000 of the stolen funds on supermarkets, eating and drinking establishments, construction work and childcare costs.
Exposure and sentencing
The theft was only exposed in 2022 after White, who had been imprisoned for five years and four months in 2019, discovered during related Proceeds of Crime Act enquiries that Bitcoin had been removed from his account. A portion of the missing cryptocurrency was later found on Chowles' personal computer, with additional amounts converted to cash. By last summer's sentencing hearing, the value of the 50 Bitcoin stood at "over £4.3million".
Chowles was arrested at his workplace in May 2022, where notebooks containing usernames and passwords linked to White's cryptocurrency accounts were seized from his office drawers. He pleaded guilty to theft, transferring criminal property and concealing criminal property, and received a five-and-a-half-year custodial sentence in July last year. The father-of-three, who had no prior criminal record, was sacked without notice from the NCA following his conviction.
Compensation and confiscation order
As part of the confiscation order, Chowles was instructed to pay £1,066,956.83 in compensation to White. However, this amount will be paid directly to HM Courts and Tribunals Service and confiscated as part of White's own Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings.
Detective Sergeant David Hale, lead financial investigator with the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit's asset recovery team, said: "Paul Chowles abused a position of trust and responsibility for personal financial gain. Today's order ensures that he does not benefit from his criminality and demonstrates our determination to pursue offenders' assets, regardless of their background or former position."
"Despite considerable efforts to disguise the movement of the stolen Bitcoin, specialist investigators were able to follow the financial trail and identify the assets linked to his offending," he added. "This outcome is particularly significant, because it not only recovers criminal profits from Chowles but also resolves the outstanding balance of Thomas White's confiscation order."
Chowles, who participated in the hearing via video link from prison, was determined to have benefited to the sum of £1,970,759.27 through his criminal activities. The repayment order is anticipated to be a formality given the funds are currently held under restraint.
