Briton found guilty of volunteering to spy for Russia

A former City worker is facing jail after he was found guilty of volunteering to spy for the Russians when he ran out of money in retirement.

Howard Phillips, 65, from Harlow, Essex, handed over the home address and landline for Grant Shapps, his local MP and then the defence secretary, during an undercover sting by MI5. He told two officers posing as Russian agents he wanted to work in intelligence to avoid a "nine-to-five office" job after clearing out his savings by retiring at 59.

Phillips was found guilty of assisting what he believed to be Russian intelligence service agents, in breach of the National Security Act. Dressed in a dark suit and dark coloured tie, he shook his head and looked around the court as he was found unanimously guilty by a jury at Winchester Crown Court after four hours of deliberation.

He now faces a lengthy jail term after offering to provide logistical support for Russian agents across the world in the increasingly desperate hope it would bail him out of his money worries. Jocelyn Ledward KC, prosecuting, said Phillips was "struggling financially" and seeking "interesting and exciting work for easy money".

Phillips, who is divorced with four grown-up children, became an insolvency practitioner in 1986 and had worked for Bond Partners in the City. He had become self-employed in 2011 and then worked as a manager in the charity sector before moving to GDPR compliance in "semi-retirement" in 2018.

Phillips explained that he sent out hundreds of CVs and applied online, adding: "I was avidly seeking employment but none was forthcoming." He filled in an online application form for MI5 in 2014 and again in 2024, because he "wanted to act in the service of my country.