UK Jails Crypto Miner for 13 Months for Stealing Electricity: Report

A crypto miner in the U.K. county of Leicestershire has been jailed for 13 months for stealing £32,000 ($44,000) of electricity to operate bitcoin mining machines.

• Sanjay Singh, 40, pleaded guilty to bypassing electrical mains to power mining machines at two sites, local news outlet Leicester Mercury reported Thursday.
• An inspection showed that Singh had manipulated the wiring to abstract electricity to an unmetered fuse box to run more than 200 devices.
• Such a method is not an uncommon criminal activity, but is more frequently carried out to support criminal activities such as growing cannabis, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) noted.
• “This is a highly unusual case,” Andrew Baxter of the CPS said. “Bitcoin mining is a legitimate legal enterprise.”

Read more: UK Police Raid Suspected Cannabis Factory, Find Bitcoin Mining Operation