Border Force officer and Hong Kong trade official jailed for spying for China | Espionage

A London-based UK Border Force officer and a Hong Kong trade official have been jailed for spying for China, the first such conviction in British criminal history.

Peter Wai, who carried out “shadow policing” operations against Chinese dissidents in the UK, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while his manager Bill Yuen was sentenced to eight years in prison.

After a two-month trial at the Old Bailey, the pair were found guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service under the National Security Act.

Wai, 41, a Border Force officer at Heathrow airport who previously served as a special constable with the Metropolitan police and the City of London police, was also found guilty of misconduct in a public office after using a Home Office computer system to obtain detailed information about his targets.

The jury heard that Yuen, 66, a senior executive at Hong Kong’s Economic and Trade Office, took over Wai’s management shortly after they met in 2021 to monitor dissidents.

In a televised sentencing, Ms Justice Cheema-Grubb said the defendants’ actions were “deliberate, planned and serious”. The judge said they caused “real and significant” harm by leaving those targeted in fear and distress.

He described Wai’s attitude towards his abuses as “arrogant” and said he had a “feeling of entitlement” to do what he wanted.

The case is one of the first to be tried under the National Security Act.

In her speech announcing her sentence, Cheema-Grubb said: “The crime for which you have been convicted is very serious. Parliament introduced the National Security Act in response to the fact that the UK now faces persistent, active and often covert interference from foreign state actors.”

“Modern foreign intelligence activities are not limited to orthodox espionage and can take the form of surveillance and collection of information on dissidents. Such behavior threatens not only individual victims but also the sovereignty of the state and the public’s trust in institutions and the security that this jurisdiction is supposed to provide to those lawfully present.”

He said he had “no doubt” that the two men’s criminal activities contributed to “fear, insecurity and distress for those targeted”.

The Chinese embassy said the case was an abuse of a law designed to embolden anti-China elements “determined to destabilize Hong Kong”.

The judge told the court he could not take into account evidence heard that the men were spying before the law comes into force in December 2023.

Among the targets of what the judge described as a “shadow policing” operation were exiled politician Nathan Law, who has been the subject of several espionage operations, and a second young activist in the United Kingdom whose family is persecuted in mainland China.

Wai also infiltrated pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong and was instructed to gather information on politicians, including former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith and his colleague Helena Kennedy.

Yuen, Wai and a third British national, Matthew Trickett, were arrested in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, in May 2024, following a failed break-in at a flat belonging to personal assistant Monica Kwong, who fled Hong Kong in 2023 after being accused of defrauding her employer of £16 million.

Seven others who had recently arrived in the UK fled the country after being released. Police did not have the resources of translators to analyze the 200 devices seized during the arrest in order to charge them.

Yuen and Wai were charged along with Trickett, 37, an immigration enforcement officer and former Royal Marine. The judge said Trickett was found dead “by his own hand” in a park in Maidenhead, Berkshire, shortly after he was released on bail.

Helen Flanagan, head of London Counter Terrorism Police, who is leading the investigation, said: “Wai and Yuen were targeting pro-democracy campaigners here in the UK and sending highly sensitive details about them and their families to Hong Kong authorities.

“Our investigation, along with convictions and sentences, shows how seriously this type of activity is taken in the UK and that it will not be tolerated. It should also serve as a warning to anyone who might be considering doing similar things that it is not worth it and you are likely to face a long prison sentence if caught.”

Flanagan added that he hoped the sentence would “reassure people living in the UK who are concerned about being targeted by any foreign government that we will take action to prevent this from happening and will do everything we can to keep them safe.”

Wai, who described Chinese dissidents as “cockroaches”, worked as a frontline uniformed officer at the Hounslow-based Met between February 2015 and April 2019, when he resigned.

At the time, he was under investigation for misconduct after he told a superior that he had used his late grandfather’s address on a loan application to avoid taxes. He also accessed police records as a favor to friends, but police said there was no evidence he used the database for espionage purposes.

Despite an investigation of misconduct being carried out on his files, Wai was later allowed to join the City of London police as a volunteer constable.

Wai, who also served in the Royal Navy, was sentenced to six years in prison for aiding a foreign intelligence service and a further four years for misconduct in public office.

A City of London police spokesman said: “After Wai was arrested we carried out an extensive review into his time as a special constable, despite assurances that the position was not used criminally.

“Our checks concluded that there was no misconduct in Wai’s file when the investigation was authorized.

“Despite his sentence today, Wai is still subject to an expedited misconduct hearing in relation to his role as a special constable.

“Our review procedures have evolved since 2019 and we regularly review our processes in line with national guidance to ensure they are as robust as possible.”