GP ordered contract killing of banker on dark web, court told
A RETIRED GP ordered the contract killing of his financial adviser after blaming him for losing £300,000 from his pension pot, a court has heard.
David Crichton, a respected doctor from Bournemouth allegedly contacted Chechen mobsters via the dark web and paid them £3,800 in bitcoins to murder Andrew Bolden, a banker.
Winchester Crown Court heard that Dr Crichton, 64, had pursued a fiveyear vendetta against Mr Bolden after accusing him of providing disastrous financial investment advice.
In February last year he is accused of accessing the encrypted website of the “Chechen mob” where he selected from an online menu of options to “kill the b------”.
Simon Jones, prosecuting, said Dr Crichton’s actions were discovered by officers with the National Crime Agency (NCA) who had been monitoring a dark web page called “Crime Bay by Chechen Mob” and found the order made for a hitman to kill Mr Bolden.
Mr Jones said the defendant had used a special browser and created an account before he selected murder from the menu. Other options included “beat the s--- out of him”, “set his car on fire”, and “set his house on fire”.
The prosecutor said: “The defendant’s intention could not be clearer. The steps he took were very clearly an attempt to solicit, ask for, request and seek a murder.”
Dr Crichton is also accused of three charges of sending a malicious communication made up of two text messages and one phone call with the aim of making Mr Bolden fear that he was about to commit suicide.
The court heard that Dr Crichton had met Mr Bolden when he was running a seminar in Bournemouth in September 2011 on NHS pensions.
The GP, who was coming up for retirement, paid for advice on how to invest his £1.8 million pension. But he lost around £300,000 after failing to comply with tax laws, resulting in fines.
In a statement, Mr Bolden, who works for the London based private bank, Shipley Brown, said: “Dr Crichton claimed the advice had caused him to lose money in the region of six figures. He delayed and missed tax deadlines, incurring a penalty. He sent me dozens of messages, he would not accept we were not at fault.”
“I was told by police about a threat that had been made to my life online. It was a shock to me and to my family.”
The prosecutor said Dr Crichton had made a complaint to the financial regulator but Mr Bolden was found to have given correct advice.
The court heard that Dr Crichton sent hundreds of emails to Mr Bolden, prompting his address to be blocked, then sent a text message on Feb 4 2017, saying: “I am contacting you out of desperation, I believe you are the only person who can help save my life.”
The prosecutor said Dr Crichton told police in interview that he had been “drunk and feeling suicidal” when he accessed the dark web, and had become obsessed with hitmen but had “thought it was a game and it wasn’t real”.
Dr Crichton denies one count of attempting to solicit murder and three of sending malicious communications. The trial continues.