Bitcoin worth £900,000 seized from hacker to compensate victims | Technology

A judge has ordered the confiscation of bitcoin worth more than £900,000 from a jailed hacker in the first case of its kind for the Metropolitan police.

Grant West, 27 – previously described as a “one-man cybercrime wave” – had about £1m-worth of the cryptocurrency seized from a number of accounts after his arrest in September 2017, but the value of bitcoin has since fluctuated radically, complicating attempts to compensate victims.

Proceedings in Southwark crown court on Friday morning were temporarily stalled as the order signed by West agreeing to the confiscation of the cryptocurrency related to a higher amount than that which was confiscated.

Eventually announcing the order under the Proceeds of Crime Act, the judge, Joanna Korner QC, said: “I therefore order a confiscation of that amount, £915,305.77, to be paid as a way of compensation to the losers.”

She said West would spend an additional four years in jail if he refused. He has agreed to comply with the…