UK man jailed for stealing electricity worth £32k to mine Bitcoin

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Sanjay Singh pleaded blameworthy and received a situation condemnation of 13 months

A UK tribunal has jailed a Bitcoin miner arrested for stealing energy estimated to beryllium worthy astir £32,000, which the prosecution said helium utilized to excavation the cryptocurrency.

Sanjay Singh, who was revealed to person powered his BTC mining machines connected stolen power, pleaded blameworthy to the charges and received a 13-month situation sentence, according to section quality published connected 14 October.

Over 200 BTC mining machines

Singh was arrested aft investigations showed helium was the 1 liable for amerciable connections astatine 2 locations successful the Leicestershire area. According to Crown Prosecution Service officials, the miner connected implicit 200 Bitcoin mining devices to the powerfulness lines astatine an aged mill astatine Coalville and a closed nightclub successful Loughborough.

The mining activities are said to person led to an overload astatine a substation, with an estimation of the magnitude of energy helium stole enactment astatine £32,000 (about $44,000).

Singh allegedly committed the offences connected 2 abstracted occasions, with the powerfulness abstraction recorded astatine the nightclub happening adjacent aft his archetypal apprehension and with investigations inactive ongoing.

CPS authoritative Andrew Baxter said that portion Bitcoin mining was a morganatic enactment nether UK law, Singh's jailing is due to the fact that of the theft that was motivated by greed. According to Baxter, the miner was simply "not honorable enough" and seemed not to see his usage of illegally acquired vigor arsenic a transgression activity.

Bitcoin mining relies connected energy oregon powerfulness from different vigor sources to tally the mining machines, with miners rewarded successful Bitcoin for creating caller coins and securing the web from attack. Miners tin clasp onto the coins they person oregon merchantability for a profit.

The terms of Bitcoin contiguous is $58,000, which is astir 10.5% disconnected its all-time precocious adjacent $65,000.

As miners look for countries with inexpensive and abundant power, countries similar Canada, Kazakhstan and Russia person emerged arsenic charismatic locations. China precocious ceded its presumption arsenic the apical destination for miners, with the US taking that mantle.

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