Robert Barr

Introduction

Robert Barr is a prisoner and, by his own admission in court, the head of an organised crime group that plotted to steal up to £2 million in cryptocurrency from a couple’s home — a scheme devised and directed, the sentencing judge found, from Barr’s own prison cell . At the High Court in Glasgow on November 10, 2026, Lord Cubie jailed Barr for eight years, with co-accused Iain Doyle receiving five years and Sean Favier four, after all three pleaded guilty to being involved in serious organised crime through an attempted theft of cryptocurrency worth up to £2 million . The judge called the plot “a crime which married 21st century computer sophistication with old fashioned housebreaking” .

Background Information

The plan relied on AnyDesk, a remote-access program used generally for technical support: Doyle and Favier were to obtain access to the victims’ house and cause the victim to click a link downloading AnyDesk onto his computer, which would let Barr — operating from another location, in his case from prison — take control of the couple’s computer, input a receiving cryptocurrency address, and transfer the contents of the couple’s wallet to accounts under his control . The court heard of detailed preparation over months: intelligence gathering that identified the victims as cryptocurrency holders, surveillance, provision of images and information pinpointing the targeted house, reconnaissance, and message exchanges that plainly contemplated threats or violence — including one reading “IM GOING TO SEND U A WEBSITE FOR THE BOYS TO MAKE HIM GO ON WHEN THEY’RE IN HIS HOUSE GONNA NEED GET HIM ON TO HIS PC FAST N DOWNLOAD ANYDESK RAPID” .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. All three pleaded guilty on the eve of trial to serious organised crime involvement in the attempted £2 million cryptocurrency theft; Barr received eight years.

On April 17, 2024, at around 11:30pm, Favier and Doyle attended the targeted house and rang the doorbell, but were spoken to through the intercom attached to the doorbell, having been seen on camera; they never obtained entry and left quickly . The judge noted the plot “was only frustrated because the victims had the sense not to open their front door at 11.30pm at night to unknown men, dressed in dark clothing with their faces obscured” . Sentencing Barr, Lord Cubie said he had accepted in the narrative that he was the head of the organised crime group, described him as “a sophisticated cybercriminal” whose culpability was high, and dismissed as hollow his reported concern about the female victim’s profession — she was a nurse — given he knew at least two people would go to the house and “make the victim do something” .

The court also treated Barr’s record as aggravating: a previous analogous conviction for a cryptocurrency fraud that drew a 21-month sentence — a term he honoured by organising this offence from his prison cell using plainly illicit means of contact and going online .

Public Reaction and Consequences

Favier’s involvement the judge found “the most peripheral of all,” with his drug habits at the time suggesting his presence was all that was required; Doyle’s claim that he thought he was only handing over a telephone could not be reconciled with the agreed narrative, which said he was aware there might be violence or threatening behaviour when the two arrived at the house . Doyle’s lawyer said homelessness and a £100 offer explained his role; the judge accepted he was directed by others and never got past ringing the bell, but held that his willingness to use threats or violence made the involvement serious and rightly prosecuted in the High Court of Justiciary . The pleas arrived on the eve of the trial, which the judge acknowledged carried some utility .

Current Status

Barr, who has spent much of the past six years in custody and was awaiting potential extradition at the time of sentencing, is serving an eight-year prison term imposed on November 10, 2026, with Favier serving four years and Doyle five .

Impact on Their Career/Life

Barr’s criminal record — already carrying a crypto-fraud conviction — now anchors a High Court organised-crime sentence for a prison-cell-directed plot against a nurse and her partner, thwarted by a door that never opened . The case stands as the court’s published account of how remote-access software, months of reconnaissance, and threats of violence were assembled inside a prison to empty a family’s cryptocurrency wallet — and of the eight-year sentence that followed when the whole plan rested on two men being admitted past a doorbell camera at half past eleven at night .

Sources

• Judiciary of Scotland, “HMA v Robert Barr, Sean Favier & Iain Doyle,” November 10, 2026 — source