Surrey Police get budget boost after £1.25m bitcoin seizure

Surrey Police has become the first UK force to seize and convert bitcoin as part of a criminal probe, netting £1.25m worth of the cryptocurrency, some of which will pay for financial investigators at a time of reduced budgets.

Kingston crown court on Thursday ruled that Seregjs Teresko, a convicted Latvian money-launderer with ties to organised crime, must forfeit £1.45m of his ill-gotten gains, including bitcoin.

While other forces including the Metropolitan Police have helped send to prison criminals who were using cryptocurrencies, Surrey Police is thought to be the first to succeed in having bitcoin confiscated by a court.

Surrey Police gets to keep 18.8 per cent of the proceeds of Teresko’s crimes — about £273,000 — which the force can use to top up its operating budget.

Police seized and then converted 295 bitcoin held by Teresko following a court hearing last October, when one was worth $4,830. The cryptocurrency touched $20,000 at the end of 2017 before…