UK jury finds man who dreamed of being James Bond guilty of attempting to spy for Russia
Howard Phillips, 65, sought to pass information about former Defense Secretary Grant Shapps to two men he believed were Russian agents. However, the agents were undercover British intelligence agents.
A jury at Winchester Crown Court found Phillips guilty of assisting what he believed to be a foreign intelligence agency. The unanimous verdict came after four hours of deliberations.
He was remanded into custody and will be sentenced in the fall. No precise date was set.
Prosecutors said Phillips offered to turn over Shapps' contact details as well as the location where he kept his private plane to 'facilitate the Russians in listening on British defense plans.'
The defendant's ex-wife told the court that Phillips 'would dream about being like James Bond,' and watched films about the British secret services because he was 'infatuated with it.'
Bethan David, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's counterterrorism division, said the conviction sends a clear message to anyone considering spying for Russia.
'Phillips was brazen in his pursuit for financial gain, and unbothered about the potential detriment to his own country,' David said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Kemi Badenoch plays down prospect of leadership coup after Tory reshuffle
Kemi Badenoch has played down the prospect of a coup after unveiling her revamped Conservative top team. The Tory leader said she was not 'paying any attention' to reports that backbenchers are already plotting to oust her, less than a year after she was elected. The New Statesman reported that many Tory MPs who backed Mrs Badenoch in the leadership contest have privately turned on her, and believe her core team of advisers are 'lightweights and sycophants'. Faltering Conservatives may seek to trigger a vote of confidence in their leader in November, once a grace period protecting her from such a move ends, the magazine said. The claims came to light a day after Mrs Badenoch reshuffled the senior Tory ranks, appointing former minister Sir James Cleverly as her shadow housing secretary. Asked about suggestions that Tory MPs were already plotting a coup, Mrs Badenoch told the PA news agency: 'I would say that if nobody put their name to it, then I'm not paying any attention to it. 'People have been saying that about every single leader, and it's usually the same one or two people who say it about every single leader.' Speaking during a visit to a housing development in north-west London alongside Sir James, Mrs Badenoch added: 'I've been elected to get the Conservative Party back on track, and I'm very focused on doing that. 'We lost to a historic defeat last year for many reasons, not least of all, house building, not doing as well as it could have done.' The New Statesman said Mrs Badenoch had criticised her predecessor Rishi Sunak for making an early exit from D-Day commemorations in France during the 2024 general election campaign, and that she believed the gaffe was central to the party's loss. The magazine also claimed to have seen a notebook containing her handwriting, which included affirming phrases like 'You are a serious person who does big things', and suggesting the Tory leader was 'the standard bearer of the right'. Mrs Badenoch's team denied that she had lost any such notebook. In his first full day in the job, shadow housing secretary Sir James accused the Prime Minister of being more interested in finding accommodation for asylum seekers than 'hard-working young people'. He said he was 'furious' when the Prime Minister 'blithely' said there are 'plenty of houses' around the UK for asylum seekers. Sir Keir Starmer insisted there was 'lots of housing available' to accommodate rising numbers of homeless people and asylum seekers when he was questioned by senior MPs earlier this week. Sir James told Times Radio: 'I was furious, I genuinely couldn't believe he said this, when the Prime Minister was at the Liaison Committee and blithely said, 'Oh, there are plenty of houses around the UK for asylum seekers'.' Sir James also said he understands the frustrations of local people when asked about demonstrations outside hotels believed to be housing asylum seekers. There has been a series of protests outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, since an asylum seeker was charged with sexual assault. His new role makes him the opposition counterpart to Angela Rayner in her housing, communities and local government brief, but not in her deputy prime minister post. Ms Rayner said on Tuesday that immigration was among issues having a 'profound impact on society' as she updated the Cabinet on her work on social cohesion. Sir James was also asked for his view on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) after Mrs Badenoch launched a review and said she was 'increasingly of the view' that the UK should withdraw. He would not say whether he agreed as he toured broadcast studios on Wednesday morning. Mrs Badenoch told broadcasters: 'James and I have always had the same position on the ECHR, and that is that if we need to leave, then we should leave, but it's not a silver bullet. 'That is why we have a commission on this very issue, which will be reporting at party conference. 'So I wouldn't bring someone into the shadow cabinet if they didn't agree with me.'
CNN
9 minutes ago
- CNN
Court overturns ex-Citi trader Hayes' criminal conviction for interest rate rigging
Tom Hayes, the first trader ever jailed for interest rate rigging, had his conviction overturned by Britain's top court Wednesday after a years-long fight to clear his name. The UK Supreme Court unanimously allowed Hayes' appeal, overturning his 2015 conviction of eight counts of conspiracy to defraud by manipulating Libor, a now-defunct benchmark interest rate. The court said there had been 'ample evidence' for a jury to reasonably conclude Hayes had conspired with others to manipulate Libor submissions – much of it coming from Hayes' own interviews with Britain's Serious Fraud Office, which brought the charges against him. But the jury 10 years ago was misdirected by the judge, the court said, and that 'undermined the fairness of the trial.' Supreme Court judge George Leggatt said Hayes was entitled to present his defense against allegations that he conspired to submit false information, including his insistence that he acted honestly, and to have those claims fairly considered by the jury. 'He was deprived of that opportunity by directions which were legally inaccurate and unfair,' the court said, adding that his convictions were 'therefore unsafe and cannot stand.' Hayes had initially received a 14-year prison sentence, later reduced to 11 years on appeal. He served five and a half years before being released on license in 2021. A former star Citigroup and UBS trader, Hayes became the face of the global Libor scandal and challenged his conviction during three days of hearings at the UK Supreme Court along with Carlo Palombo, 46, a former Barclays trader who was found guilty in 2019 of skewing Libor's euro equivalent, Euribor. The court also quashed Palombo's conviction. He was given a four-year sentence in 2019. The SFO said that after considering the judgment it would not be in the public interest for it to seek a retrial. Hayes and Palombo had argued that their convictions depended on a definition of Libor and Euribor that assumes there is an absolute legal bar on a bank's commercial interests being taken into account when setting rates. The Libor rate, phased out in 2023, was designed to reflect banks' short-term funding costs and based on daily estimates from a group of banks as to how much they would expect to pay to borrow funds from each other for a range of currencies and periods. Hayes' challenge at the Supreme Court followed a landmark US court decision in 2022 that overturned the Libor rigging convictions of two former Deutsche Bank traders.
CNN
18 minutes ago
- CNN
Court overturns ex-Citi trader Hayes' criminal conviction for interest rate rigging
Tom Hayes, the first trader ever jailed for interest rate rigging, had his conviction overturned by Britain's top court Wednesday after a years-long fight to clear his name. The UK Supreme Court unanimously allowed Hayes' appeal, overturning his 2015 conviction of eight counts of conspiracy to defraud by manipulating Libor, a now-defunct benchmark interest rate. The court said there had been 'ample evidence' for a jury to reasonably conclude Hayes had conspired with others to manipulate Libor submissions – much of it coming from Hayes' own interviews with Britain's Serious Fraud Office, which brought the charges against him. But the jury 10 years ago was misdirected by the judge, the court said, and that 'undermined the fairness of the trial.' Supreme Court judge George Leggatt said Hayes was entitled to present his defense against allegations that he conspired to submit false information, including his insistence that he acted honestly, and to have those claims fairly considered by the jury. 'He was deprived of that opportunity by directions which were legally inaccurate and unfair,' the court said, adding that his convictions were 'therefore unsafe and cannot stand.' Hayes had initially received a 14-year prison sentence, later reduced to 11 years on appeal. He served five and a half years before being released on license in 2021. A former star Citigroup and UBS trader, Hayes became the face of the global Libor scandal and challenged his conviction during three days of hearings at the UK Supreme Court along with Carlo Palombo, 46, a former Barclays trader who was found guilty in 2019 of skewing Libor's euro equivalent, Euribor. The court also quashed Palombo's conviction. He was given a four-year sentence in 2019. The SFO said that after considering the judgment it would not be in the public interest for it to seek a retrial. Hayes and Palombo had argued that their convictions depended on a definition of Libor and Euribor that assumes there is an absolute legal bar on a bank's commercial interests being taken into account when setting rates. The Libor rate, phased out in 2023, was designed to reflect banks' short-term funding costs and based on daily estimates from a group of banks as to how much they would expect to pay to borrow funds from each other for a range of currencies and periods. Hayes' challenge at the Supreme Court followed a landmark US court decision in 2022 that overturned the Libor rigging convictions of two former Deutsche Bank traders.
