================================================================================================
CASE 029  |  Danny Aston & Amy Jay  |  January 27, 2018  |  UK
================================================================================================

DATABASE RECORD
  id                  29
  date                January 27, 2018
  original_date       January 27, 2018
  year                2018
  month               1
  quarter             2018-Q1
  victim              Danny Aston & Amy Jay
  location            Moulsford, Oxfordshire, England
  country             UK
  scenario            Home Invasion
  description         Armed home invasion of Bitcoin trading firm owner
  kidnappings         0
  violence_torture    1
  drugs_alcohol       0
  weapons             0
  theft               0
  life_taken          0
  money_wanted        (null)
  coin_type           (null)
  reports             Business Insider
  notes               failed attempt
  has_processed_date  1
  created_at          2025-11-13 05:44:45
  (flag legend: 'kidnappings' is the DETENTION flag — 1 when the victim was held against
   their will at any point, tied, locked in, held at gunpoint or taken away; it is NOT the
   same as the 'Kidnapping' scenario, which means taken away and held. See README, Definitions.)

AI SUMMARY  [generated at bulk import, NOT verified against sources]
  **Victim:** Danny Aston & Amy Jay
  
  **Attackers:** Unknown number of perpetrators
  
  **Attack Method:** Home Invasion
  
  **Violence Used:** Physical violence
  
  **Crypto Stolen:** No theft completed
  
  **Status:** Investigation ongoing

LINKED SOURCES
  [url]  https://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-raid-moulsford-transfer-failed-thieves-got-nothing-2018-2

NOTES ON THIS FILE
  * matched to sheet row 30: exact match on victim + year, unique on both sides

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ARTICLE 1
  Source   Business Insider
  URL      https://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-raid-moulsford-transfer-failed-thieves-got-nothing-2018-2
  Origin   reported_K&R sheet, row 30, column "Articles"
  Length   3,912 chars
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Britain's first Bitcoin heist as trader forced at gunpoint to transfer cyber currency
Danny Aston lives in a rented four-bedroom converted barn estimated to be worth at least £700,000
Danny Aston lives in a rented four-bedroom converted barn estimated to be worth at least £700,000 Credit: Ric Mellis/INS
By Tony Diver
28 January 2018 • 6:42pm
Armed robbers broke into the family home of a city financier turned Bitcoin trader and forced him to transfer the digital currency at gunpoint, in what is believed to be the first heist of its kind in the UK.
Four robbers in balaclavas forced their way into the home of Danny Aston, 30, who runs a digital currency trading firm, before reportedly tying up a woman and forcing Mr Aston to transfer an unknown quantity of the cryptocurrency.
Mr Aston lives in the picturesque village of Moulsford in South Oxfordshire, where episodes of Midsomer Murders have been filmed, in a rented four-bedroom converted barn estimated to be worth at least £700,000 on a private drive.
Police were called at around 9.40am on Monday to attend the home after raiders are reported to have entered the property by kicking down the door.
The Mail on Sunday reported that the men tied up a woman and kept a baby outside in a pram while forcing Mr Aston to transfer the Bitcoin. The value of a single Bitcoin is now around £8,000.
A neighbour confirmed on Sunday the property where the violent burglary took place, but said that Mr Aston and a woman believed to be his partner left Moulsford on Monday to stay with relatives and have not returned.
They said: "I was not here at the time, but I know the couple have left and are staying with relatives, they haven't been back since.
"We are all obviously a bit shaken up, even though a few days have passed now. It is not what you expect to happen around here."
Moulsford
The raid happened in the village of Moulsford Credit: Ric Mellis/INS
Mr Aston - who lives with his 31-year-old business partner Amy Jay, according to the latest Companies House records - previously worked at Trayport, a London-based financial software company that operates a platform for trading energy commodities.
In June 2017, he established his own digital currency firm just before Bitcoin’s huge surge in value in July, according to Companies House.
Both Mr Aston and Ms Jay are listed online as directors of Aston Digital Currencies Ltd, and a company called Butler Hosting, which specialises in “data processing, hosting and related activities”.
A user named Danny Aston has previously been active on trading site Poloniex, which allows users to trade and store digital currency.
A local resident described the victim of the attack as well-known, but suggested that the small village community had been left dazed by the news.
“Everyone is shocked I think,” he said. “We think we live in a safer space, and then this happens and everyone gets scared.”

A police spokesman said: “Thames Valley Police is investigating an aggravated burglary which occurred at a property in Moulsford on Monday.
“Officers were called at about 9.40am to a report that offenders had entered a residential property off Reading Road and threatened the occupants. No one was seriously injured during the incident.
“An investigation into the incident is underway and officers attended nearby Moulsford School as a precautionary measure. It is not believed there was a threat to anyone at the school.
"Officers are particularly interested in speaking to anyone travelling through the village on the A329 Reading Road between 7.30am and 10.30am on Monday who has Dashcam footage or anyone with mobile phone footage.
“People in the local community may notice an increased presence of officers in the area while our enquiries are ongoing.  The investigation is in its early stages however initial enquiries suggest this may be a targeted incident.
“No arrests have been made at this stage."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ARTICLE 2
  Source   Business Insider
  URL      (no URL recorded for this column)
  Origin   reported_K&R sheet, row 30, column "Article 2"
  Length   2,613 chars
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Armed raiders who held 2 bitcoin traders at gunpoint in rural England didn't actually manage to steal anything
By Kieran Corcoran

The approximate location of the raid in Moulsford, Oxfordshire. 
Armed criminals attacked a home in Oxfordshire, Britain, last month.
It was the registered address of a cryptocurrency company.
Four men broke in and tried to force inhabitants to make a transfer.
But it failed and the raiders left with nothing, police said.
Officers are still looking for the men and issued descriptions.

Armed burglars who broke into the home of two British bitcoin traders and held them at gunpoint didn't actually manage to steal any cryptocurrency, police have said.

Four men, who are now on the run from Thames Valley Police, tried to force two traders to transfer a large quantity of bitcoin after kicking down the door of a home in rural Moulsford, Oxfordshire, on January 22.

The raid was carried out on the home of Danny Aston and his girlfriend Amy Jay, who had used it as the registered address of their business, Aston Digital Currencies.

But, according to an update on the case more than a week later, the transfer didn't actually work. They did not take any material possessions either, meaning they left empty-handed.

A statement released on Tuesday by Thames Valley Police described the incident:

"The offenders threatened the two men and a woman who were inside the property, with what appeared to be a firearm and demanded one of the occupants to transfer bitcoins electronically to another account.

"The victim was struck to his head but was not seriously injured during the incident. He attended the John Radcliffe Hospital and was later discharged. Nothing was stolen during the incident."

The Oxford Mail local newspaper confirmed with the police force that the transfer did not work, and were told by a spokesman: "It's correct to say that the attempted transaction of bitcoins failed."

"Targeted incident"
Police also released slightly more detail on the suspects, describing their race (three were black, one was white) and what they were wearing ("tracksuits/sports clothing").

Officers are still looking for the men. They asked anybody with dashcam video footage or other evidence from the morning of the raid to contact them.

Police have not issued further information on who the men might have been, but suggested that the raid "may be a targeted incident," implying a level of sophistication beyond that of small-time criminals.

Cryptocurrency and crime are overlapping more and more since the dramatic spike in the value of leading currencies like bitcoin.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FETCHED ARTICLE 1  [AUTO-TRIMMED — UNREVIEWED]
  !! Furniture was cut by a script keyed on this case's record, not by a person.
  !! It may still carry passages about OTHER cases from a round-up article.
  !! The full page extract is kept in staging/ if a cut needs revisiting.
  Source     businessinsider.com
  URL        https://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-raid-moulsford-transfer-failed-thieves-got-nothing-2018-2
  Field      url
  Retrieved  2026-09-05T12:56:08+00:00 via raw HTTP retrieval, deterministic extraction (HTTP 200)
  Language   unknown
  Kept       paragraphs headline [0] + 4-27 of 28
  Length     4,557 chars
  Integrity  sha256 ec8bd2b91fddef70a4d26a81e2bb921ab93fac2dfa030715d2929335594f5490
  Trimmed    AUTO-TRIMMED, unreviewed: kept paragraphs 4-27 plus headline [0]; dropped 3 leading and 0 trailing paragraphs. Case-term hits on page: 11.
  Caveat     retrieved from a live page on the date above. Unlike text copied
             from the spreadsheet, there is no second copy to hash it against.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ORIGINAL (unknown, verbatim as retrieved)

Bitcoin Raid, Moulsford: Transfer Failed, Thieves Got Nothing - Business Insider

Armed criminals attacked a home in Oxfordshire, Britain, last month.

It was the registered address of a cryptocurrency company.

Four men broke in and tried to force inhabitants to make a transfer.

But it failed and the raiders left with nothing, police said.

Officers are still looking for the men and issued descriptions.

Armed burglars who broke into the home of two British bitcoin traders and held them at gunpoint didn't actually manage to steal any cryptocurrency, police have said.

Four men, who are now on the run from Thames Valley Police, tried to force two traders to transfer a large quantity of bitcoin after kicking down the door of a home in rural Moulsford, Oxfordshire, on January 22.

The raid was carried out on the home of Danny Aston and his girlfriend Amy Jay, who had used it as the registered address of their business, Aston Digital Currencies.

But, according to an update on the case more than a week later, the transfer didn't actually work. They did not take any material possessions either, meaning they left empty-handed.

A statement released on Tuesday by Thames Valley Police described the incident:

"The offenders threatened the two men and a woman who were inside the property, with what appeared to be a firearm and demanded one of the occupants to transfer bitcoins electronically to another account.

"The victim was struck to his head but was not seriously injured during the incident. He attended the John Radcliffe Hospital and was later discharged. Nothing was stolen during the incident."

The Oxford Mail local newspaper confirmed with the police force that the transfer did not work, and were told by a spokesman: "It's correct to say that the attempted transaction of bitcoins failed."

Take a smarter break in your day - and see how far you get.

Want more Business Insider in your news feed?

Add BI in Google so our reporting is easier to find when you’re searching for what matters.

Police also released slightly more detail on the suspects, describing their race (three were black, one was white) and what they were wearing ("tracksuits/sports clothing").

Officers are still looking for the men. They asked anybody with dashcam video footage or other evidence from the morning of the raid to contact them.

Police have not issued further information on who the men might have been, but suggested that the raid "may be a targeted incident," implying a level of sophistication beyond that of small-time criminals.

Cryptocurrency and crime are overlapping more and more since the dramatic spike in the value of leading currencies like bitcoin.

Officers from London's Metropolitan Police told Business Insider towards the end of last year that bitcoin is so widely used in the city that even regular drug dealers are using it to launder their takings.

Check out Business Insider's picks for best cryptocurrency exchanges

Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know

Kieran was an Executive Editor at Business Insider and its first Deputy Bureau Chief in the UK.He spearheaded BI’s work on the war in Ukraine and helped lead its breaking-news effort.He joined Business Insider in 2017, when it had no general-news desk in London, and built that team to more than a dozen people.He helped oversee coverage spanning politics, defense, business, science, health, entertainment, royalty, and lifestyle.In his time at BI, the UK news team won a Drum Award for its Ukraine reporting. Its work was twice shortlisted twice in the British Journalism Awards and highly commended once.He occasionally broke ranks to blog about Latin.Before Business Insider he worked for Dow Jones, MailOnline, The Sun, and The Independent.Kieran graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in English. He speaks some Russian and less French.He is on X with the handle @kj_corcoran.Notable work from his teams includes:The Unyielding City: How Ukraine lost Bakhmut and Russia won a hollow victoryIran will pay for gender-transition surgery, but it comes at a cost — your dignityA bright, talented Ukrainian journalist signed up to help Fox News cover the war. Two months later she was dead.Salt Bae's former employees describe tip theft, discrimination, and polyester uniforms‘I feel conned into keeping this baby’How an entire nation embraced toxic bleach as a COVID-19 miracle cureA Saudi princess, silencedInside London's derelict 'Billionaires Row' — a mile-long street of mystery, murder, and tax avoidance

================================================================================================
generated from attacks-export-Gart-website.json + reported_K&R  |  case 029
================================================================================================
