Sunderland crypto-scam victim tried to rob shop with gun

After falling victim to an online scam, Louis Crosby made a cash demand at a Sunderland store.

When he lost the money aside for his he had set wedding aside for his wedding in a cryptocurrency scam, the soon-to-be husband attempted to rob a store with a revolver.

The court heard that before being conned, student Louis Crosby, 25, "naively" turned his savings into digital money.

Shortly after learning where the money had disappeared, on November 27, he went to a store in Sunderland and demanded cash but was thwarted when the staff retaliated.

Crosby, of Portobello Road, was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted robbery and gun possession.

A judge who stated Crosby was thrust into a "crisis" by the cryptocurrency "disaster" postponed the sentence for two years

seized with a gun.

At around 22:50 GMT, according to testimony given at Newcastle Crown Court, Crosby entered the Premier store on St. Luke's Road and told employees, "Give me the money, I have a gun."

Crosby was detained until the police arrived after the store owner and a worker engaged in an "astonishing" battle and forced Crosby to drop the firearm.

Despite the gun being pointed in Crosby's direction, the worker approached him, the court heard.

Crosby is pointing a rifle at the workers while wearing a scarf over his face

he unloaded air weapon was grabbed by the store employee, who subsequently managed to knock it out of Crosby's grasp as he made an attempt to flee.

The court heard that when Crosby was arrested, he said, "It was a joke."

Undergraduate Crosby was getting married to a Singaporean national he met online.

"He had somewhat stupidly deposited his resources he required for a wedding dowry and for his rent into bitcoin and he himself had been conned," Nicholas Lane, the defendant's attorney, said.

He used an air pistol that he had ordered online to accomplish this crime in "obviously a moment when he wasn't thinking straight."

by : Orca