NCA Officer Who Stole Bitcoin From Crime Network Jailed for Five and a Half Years

A former National Crime Agency officer who stole 50 BTC from a crime network he was investigating has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison after his year-long deception was revealed through forensic blockchain analysis.

Paul Chowles from Bristol was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to theft, transferring criminal property, and concealing criminal property, according to a Crown Prosecution Service statement.

Chowles was first charged in March 2025 with 15 counts of criminal offenses related to the theft of 50 BTC—which at the time of the theft was worth $77,000 (£60,000), but has since risen to $5.6 million, as Bitcoin’s price rose to over $120k.

The officer, who was regarded as “competent, technically minded and very aware of the dark web and cryptocurrencies,” exploited his position during a 2017 investigation into the dark web marketplace Silk Road 2.0 to steal Bitcoin.

The accused was part of the NCA team investigating Thomas White, who had launched Silk Road 2.0 less than a month after the FBI shut down the original site in 2013, according to the statement.

White was subsequently jailed for 64 months in April 2019. During the investigation, Chowles took the lead in analyzing and extracting crypto from White’s seized devices.

Chowles transferred the stolen Bitcoin from White’s “retirement wallet” to various accounts between May 6-7, 2017, breaking down the crypto into smaller amounts and routing it through Bitcoin Fog, a crypto mixer service designed to obscure transaction trails.

“He took advantage of his position working on this investigation by lining his own pockets while devising a plan that he believed would ensure that suspicion would never fall upon him,” said Alex Johnson, Specialist Prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime Division.

Chowles converted the stolen crypto using Cryptopay and Wirex debit cards, making 279 transactions totaling $144,580 (£144,580) before being caught.

The investigation revealed he had notebooks in his office containing usernames, passwords, and statements relating to White’s crypto accounts.

The theft was initially attributed to White himself, with the NCA assuming he had somehow accessed his wallet while in custody.

However, White consistently denied involvement, and by late 2021, the missing Bitcoin had been written off as untraceable.

Merseyside Police cracked the case with the help of blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, which traced the funds despite their passage through mixing services.

After five years of dormancy, authorities recovered devices containing private keys during a 2022 search of Chowles’ residence.

Detective Chief Inspector John Black from Merseyside Police’s Force Intelligence Bureau said the case showed “in the starkest terms that nobody is above the law.”

The investigation benefited from enhanced powers granted to the NCA in 2024, allowing the agency to “seize, freeze and destroy” crypto used by criminals without requiring arrests.

Chowles has since been dismissed from the NCA on July 11, according to the statement, and the Crown Prosecution Service will now pursue confiscation proceedings to recover the proceeds of crime.