Two men jailed in UK for spying for China

A former British immigration officer and a retired Hong Kong police officer have been jailed for spying for China.

Peter Wai, 41, carried out “shadow policing” operations against Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters living in the UK on the orders of his superior Bill Yuen, 66.

The Chinese-British duo were arrested following a failed attempt to kidnap £16million fraud suspect Monica Kwong from her flat in Pontefract, West Yorkshire.

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

Former Metropolitan Police officer Wai was also found guilty of misconduct in a public office by misusing a Home Office computer system to obtain information about people of interest to Hong Kong authorities.

On Thursday, Wai, from Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey, was jailed for 10 years and Yuen, from Hackney, east London, was jailed for eight years.

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, which takes effect in 2023.

Wai worked as a frontline uniformed officer with the Hounslow-based Metropolitan Police between February 2015 and April 2019, when he resigned.

At the time, he was under investigation for misconduct after telling a superior that he had used his deceased grandfather’s address to apply for a loan 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.

The former Royal Navy soldier was working as a special constable with the City of London Police for the UK Border Force at Heathrow airport and set up a private security company when he began spying for Yuen.

He accessed the Ministry of Internal Affairs database to gather intelligence while on sick leave and on his days off.

The taskmaster and handler, former Hong Kong inspector Yuen, was office manager at the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office (HKETO) in London, said to be an extension of the Hong Kong government in the United Kingdom.

Investigators linked Yuen directly to the Chinese government’s Security Bureau through his connection to another former police chief.

Wai, who previously led a traditional lion dance troupe, had conducted intelligence gathering for another former senior Hong Kong police officer with strong ties to the Chinese state.

Targets included Hong Kong dissidents; British politicians, including senior Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith, were given “special attention”.

Wai called Hong Kongers “cockroaches” while collecting information about what cars they drive, where they live and their social media accounts.

Prominent campaigner Nathan Law, who has a one million Hong Kong dollar (£95,680) bounty on his head, was photographed leaving the Oxford Union during a surveillance operation.

Personal assistant Ms Kwong left Hong Kong with her young son in 2023 amid accusations that she was involved in a £16 million fraud, a claim she has denied.

After locating Ms. Kwong, the defendants, who are both married with children, formed a team to enter her home, first by deception and then by use of force, which led to their arrest on May 1, 2024.

Jurors heard that Matthew Trickett, 37, an immigration enforcement officer and former Royal Marine, tried to enter the flat by pretending it was flooded.

Security services, alerted to what was going on, were listening in on their activities and were waiting inside the flat when the team finally broke in.

Upon Wai’s arrest, officers found a warrant card identifying him as a special constable and a second fake card identifying him as an investigator.

Of the 11 people detained under the National Security Act, only Trickett, who worked as a Home Office immigration officer, was charged with Wai and Yuen under the National Security Act.

But a week later he killed himself in woodland near Maidenhead, Berkshire.

Jonathan Caplan KC, mitigating for Yuen, disputed that the “highly respected” former senior civil servant had “betrayed” his adopted country.

He said: “There is evidence that he was very proud to live in this country and that he cared deeply about Great Britain.”

Aftab Jafferjee KC, for Wai, maintained that no “harm” had been caused to the UK and said: “This is not an espionage ring in the traditional sense.”

London Counter Terrorism Police commander Helen Flanagan said: “Wai and Yuen’s activities were truly chilling.

“It was spying on and targeting individuals who were pro-democracy campaigners in the UK and were simply protesting against the Hong Kong and Chinese government and authorities and seeking asylum in the UK.”