Two men first in British history to be found guilty of spying for China | Crime

A London-based UK Border Force officer and Hong Kong trade official have been found guilty of spying for China and spying on dissidents through a “shadow policing” operation.

Chi Leung “Peter” Wai, 38, and Chung Biu Yuen, 65, also known as Bill, were found guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service at the Old Bailey, making them the first people in British history to be convicted of spying for China.

Wai, who worked for the Border Force at Heathrow airport and volunteered as a City of London special constable, was also found guilty of misconduct in public office over unauthorized searches of Home Office databases.

Two people who denied the charges were found guilty by majority vote provisions. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb will sentence the men, who are dual Chinese and British nationals, at a later date.

Yuen, accused of giving Wai targets to spy on, looked down when the verdict was heard. Wai looked ahead.

After deliberating for 23 hours and 38 minutes, jurors were unable to reach a verdict on the charges against the foreign interference men, a separate crime under the National Security Act. The prosecution said it would not seek a retrial.

The third defendant, former Royal Marine Matthew Trickett, 37, who was charged under the National Security Act alongside Yuen and Wai in May 2024, was found dead in a park near his home in Maidenhead, Berkshire, a week after being released on bail.

Prosecutors had asked the court to detain Trickett for his own protection after he tried to kill himself in a police cell following his arrest. He told detention sergeants that he would kill himself when he was released.

A nine-week trial heard Wai had been gathering intelligence at the behest of Yuen, a senior executive at the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office (HKETO) in London, said to be an extension of the Hong Kong government in the UK.

The court heard that the targets included exiled politician Nathan Law, who led the student protest movement in Hong Kong. Law has been the subject of numerous espionage operations and a £100,000 bounty has been placed on his head by Chinese authorities.

The jury was told Wai infiltrated pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong and tried to gather information on British politicians, including former Conservative cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith and Labor Party member Helena Kennedy.

The spy ring was revealed after police foiled an attempt to kidnap personal assistant Monica Kwong, who fled Hong Kong in 2023 after being accused of defrauding her employer Tina Zhou of £16 million.

Wai was arrested at Kwong’s flat in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, on May 1, 2024, along with Trickett, then a Home Office immigration officer, as well as Zhou and two former Hong Kong police officers, who flew to London to confront the personal assistant over the alleged fraud.

The court heard the group tried to break into Kwong’s house by pretending to be electricians coming to fix a fuse. Trickett poured bottled water on the floor to simulate a fake flood as part of a failed ruse to get Kwong out of the flat.

When the group later entered Kwong’s house, the police who were listening in on them were waiting to detain the suspects.

Wai, known as Fatboy to his friends, has denied providing intelligence to Chinese officials for years.

He joined the Royal Navy in his youth as an engineer and was commissioned into the Royal Marines before joining the Royal Navy police. He was also an instructor in the traditional Chinese martial art of lion dancing, and his group performed at 10 Downing Street.

He claimed that a chat group in which he was accused of sharing intelligence was related to a company run by the lion dance master and that he was merely passing on information about life in England. But jurors were shown messages between Yuen and Wai that the prosecution said showed they discussed plans to target activists dubbed “cockroaches”.

The Chinese embassy in London had previously accused Britain of fabricating these allegations.

Responding to the convictions, Home Secretary Dan Jarvis said: “The activities these men carried out on behalf of China are a violation of our sovereignty and will never be tolerated.

“We will continue to hold China to account and directly challenge them for actions that put the safety of people in our country at risk. That is why the Foreign Office will summon the Chinese Ambassador to make clear that such activities are, and always have been, unacceptable on UK soil.”

“This case proves the power of the powers we have to protect us from hostile activities by foreign states, and these convictions must send a clear message: there will be serious consequences for anyone who seeks to undermine our security.”