Three men broke into a Bristol home demanding cryptocurrency. They walked away with none of it.
The men forced their way into the victim’s home in the early hours of May 15, assaulted him, and demanded he hand over a large amount of digital currency. The attempt was cut short when the victim’s teenage sister managed to alert police, who arrested all three at the scene.
Avon and Somerset Police said in a statement issued on October 16 that Terroll Paul, 31, Mohamed Samagassi, 37, and Pierre Madzou, 30, were sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on Thursday, October 15, after pleading guilty to aggravated burglary.
What Happened
According to Avon and Somerset Police, Paul, Samagassi, and Madzou forced their way into the victim’s Bristol home in the early hours of May 15, 2026, before assaulting him and demanding he hand over cryptocurrency. During the incident, the victim was struck on the head, causing a substantial injury that required hospital treatment.
The men were all arrested at the scene after the victim’s teenage sister was able to alert police. Following an investigation, they were charged with aggravated burglary, and each pleaded guilty to the offense at a hearing at Bristol Crown Court in August.
The Sentencing
At Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Paul, of Barking in London, was sentenced to six years in prison. Madzou, also of Barking, received five-and-a-half years, and Samagassi, of no fixed address, was sentenced to five years.
In a victim personal statement read out in court, the victim said the incident had changed him, “I am constantly so frightened, paranoid and completely petrified. This incident has had a significant impact on me and has turned me into a completely different person; I say and do things out of character. Before, I was bubbly, talkative and outgoing but now I would describe myself as tense and apprehensive.”
PC Gemma Childs, the investigating officer, said the incident had a “devastating and long-lasting effect” on the victim, who she said had “fully co-operated with police throughout the investigation” and “demonstrated outstanding resilience and bravery.” She credited the victim’s younger sister with “extreme bravery,” saying her actions “led directly to the apprehension of the offenders and preventing her brother from further harm.”
Part of a Wider Pattern
The Bristol case joins a growing list of so-called “wrench” attacks”—physical break-ins, robberies, and kidnappings aimed at forcing crypto holders to hand over their assets, named for a webcomic illustrating how a five-dollar wrench defeats any amount of digital security.
Earlier this year, three UK teenagers were jailed for a combined 16 years after posing as delivery drivers to force their way into a London flat and steal $4.3 million in crypto at knifepoint; that cryptocurrency was recovered within 72 hours.
In the US, three men were charged in May after allegedly using the same delivery-driver tactic in a wrench-attack spree that included forcing one victim to transfer $6.5 million in crypto. France alone recorded at least 10 wrench attacks in 2025, part of a global total Jameson Lopp, CTO of security firm Casa, put at more than 65 for the year.
In a more extended UK case, seven men were jailed for a combined 76 years at Manchester Crown Court in January 2025 after kidnapping, drugging, and torturing a victim over nearly a year — from January to November 2023 — to extort roughly £100,000 ($124,000) in cryptocurrency, releasing and re-abducting him multiple times as they escalated their demands.
What distinguishes the Bristol case from many of those is that it failed outright: unlike attacks where victims are coerced into transferring funds before police intervene, the Bristol victim’s sister raised the alarm before the attackers obtained anything. Security researchers who track these incidents say publicly displaying crypto wealth, whether through social media or known reputations, remains one of the clearest ways holders make themselves targets for this kind of physical coercion.
Also read: India’s ED Raids 20 Locations in Betting Fraud Probe Involving Crypto Conversions
