James Bond wannabe jailed for trying to spy for Russia

A British man who “dreamed of being like James Bond” has been sentenced to seven years in prison for trying to spy for Russia.

Howard Phillips, 65, was convicted in July of trying to pass information about his acquaintance, former Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, to two men he believed were Russian intelligence agents.

However, the agents were actually undercover British intelligence agents.

“You were prepared to betray your country for money,” Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb told Phillips at his sentencing hearing at Winchester Crown Court in southern England.

The judge said Phillips had “a personality with narcissistic tendencies and an exaggerated sense of his own importance”.

The hearing heard Phillips planned to assist Russian agents between the end of 2023 and May 2024. Shapps was defense minister between August 2023 and July 2024, when his Conservative Party was ousted from power and lost its seat in Parliament in a general election.

The hearing heard in particular how Phillips tried to give Shapps’ contact details and the location of his private plane to “make it easier for the Russians to eavesdrop on British defense plans”.

The defendant’s ex-wife told the court Phillips would “dream about being like James Bond” and watched films about British secret services because he was “in love with it”.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Shapps expressed her shock at learning of Phillips’ activities.

He recalled going to dinner at Phillips’ house in 2002.

“What is unacceptable is that one person’s reckless behavior has exposed my entire family to extremely serious risks from the activities of a foreign intelligence service,” he said.

Bethan David, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Counter Terrorism Section, said the conviction sent “a clear message to anyone considering spying for or aiding Russia”.