A UK man was sentenced to 4-1/2 years in prison for stealing $2.5 million in cryptocurrency.

 Wybbo Wirsma, a Dutchman living in the United Kingdom, was investigated for five years before pleading guilty in an Oxford court on Thursday.

A man in the United Kingdom was sentenced to four years and six months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing more than 2 million pounds (US$2.5 million) in bitcoin, according to the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU).

Wybbo Wiersma, a 40-year-old Dutch native residing in Oxford, England, was being investigated by UK and Dutch authorities after laptops, narcotics, and cash were confiscated in his Oxford house in 2019, following a police probe.

Wiersma had created a fake website on which he produced an 81-character code that he used to steal IOTA tokens from people all across the world.

"Wiersma robbed consumers of their bitcoin investments, transferring it through a network of trading accounts and leading others to lose companies and life savings," SEROCU Detective Inspector Rob Bryant said in a statement.