The owner of a high street mobile phone shop has become the first person in the UK to be charged with operating an illegal cryptocurrency ATM, according to Kent Police.

Officers carried out a search warrant at the Gadcet shop in Chatham’s High Street on 28 April 2023, where they said they seized a number of crypto ATMs, including one on public display.

Habibur Rahman, 37, of Langdon Crescent in East Ham, London, was arrested on the same day and has now been charged with operating the machine without registration from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

He is also alleged to have laundered £300,000 of criminal cash by converting it into cryptocurrency.

Mr Rahman has been bailed to attend Medway Magistrates’ Court on 10 October.

Crypto ATMs are machines which allow customers to buy or convert funds into cryptoassets, but the FCA has previously warned they can be used to launder illegally obtained cash.

There are currently no crypto ATMs registered with the FCA.

Matthew Long, its director of payments and digital assets, said: “We continue to remind people that crypto remains largely unregulated and high risk; if you buy it, you should be prepared to lose all your money.”