National Crime Agency officer jailed after stealing £4.4m in seized bitcoin
A National Crime Agency officer has been sentenced to prison after stealing bitcoin worth £4.4 million, originally seized during a major joint investigation with the FBI.
Paul Chowles, 42, now behind bars for five and a half years, abused his trusted position within the NCA to quietly pocket a stash of cryptocurrency tied to a notorious online drug market. The case unfolded at Liverpool Crown Court, shaking confidence in one of the UK’s top law enforcement agencies.
This wasn’t just a one-off lapse. Chowles sat on his secret for five years.
The theft traces back to 2017. Chowles had worked on the high-profile investigation into Thomas White, a Liverpool man who ran the illegal Silk Road 2.0 marketplace on the dark web.
It was White himself who noticed something off—he flagged that 50 of his 97 bitcoin were missing. Given only the NCA held the private keys to his digital wallet, suspicion quickly turned inward.
“[Chowles] took advantage of his position on this investigation to line his own pockets while devising a plan that he believed would cover his tracks. He was wrong,” said DCI John Black of Merseyside Police’s intelligence bureau, which worked closely with the NCA to uncover the internal breach.
Despite the crime occurring in 2017, it wasn’t until 2022 that Chowles began to unravel. White had been released on licence, and during routine supervision, Merseyside Police began discussing the missing cryptocurrency with NCA representatives.
Chowles was present at those meetings—hiding in plain sight.
Investigators eventually discovered that Chowles had been living off the stolen funds, spending over £600,000 on everyday items—groceries, petrol, tools, and meals. Not exactly the lifestyle of a lavish criminal, but one that funded his daily comforts for years.
Back then, the stolen 50 bitcoin were worth about £60,000. Thanks to the explosive growth in cryptocurrency value, the haul eventually ballooned to over £4 million.
The breakthrough came when police seized an iPhone linked to a crypto wallet involved in laundering the stolen funds. They also found browser history detailing searches on cryptocurrency mixing services—tools used to mask digital money trails.
And in his office? Notebooks packed with usernames, passwords, and key information tied to White’s crypto accounts.
“Once he had stolen the cryptocurrency, Paul Chowles sought to muddy the waters and cover his tracks by transferring the bitcoin into mixing services to help hide the trail of money,” said Alex Johnson, a specialist prosecutor from the Crown Prosecution Service.
He added: “He made a large amount of money through his criminality, and it is only right that he is punished for his corrupt actions.”
Chowles, once regarded as technically gifted and highly knowledgeable about the dark web, has now fallen from grace.
From trusted officer to convicted thief, this case raises serious questions about internal oversight in Britain’s elite crime-fighting units. A stunning betrayal—exposed only because the criminal being investigated noticed first.
The NCA has yet to confirm whether wider internal reviews are underway following Chowles’ conviction.
