Spy sold secrets to Russians for cash

13 Feb 2023

A spy spent years collecting highly sensitive secrets to sell to the Russians for large amounts of cash, the Old Bailey heard.

David Ballantyne Smith, 58, gathered a mass of secrets while working as a security guard in the British Embassy in Berlin.

The Scot was unmasked in a joint investigation by German police and British security services and arrested at his home in Potsdam in August 2021.

Smith was said to be motivated by ‘an extreme hatred of where he works and the United Kingdom in general’, the court has heard.

The undercover operation began when he made an unauthorised photocopy of embassy documents along with video recordings of CCTV footage of a person known as ‘Dmitry’.

‘The operation provided the defendant with the opportunity to obtain further highly sensitive information about an individual, Dmitry, who the defendant believed to be a Russian citizen helping the UK,’ said Alison Morgan, KC, prosecuting.

‘Plainly such an individual would be of obvious interest to those that the defendant was in contact with, within the Russian Embassy.

‘The defendant took advantage of that opportunity, recording videos of Dmitry and obtaining other information connected with him.

‘As part of the operation the defendant was approached by a further undercover operative, Irina, who posed as an agent of the Russian intelligence service, the GRU, making enquiries to see if the defendant was minded to provide sensitive information to her.

‘The defendant engaged in discussions with her about the embassy.’

Smith was arrested at his home on 10 August 2021.

‘Following further police investigation, it was established that over a period of years, the defendant had been collecting a range of highly sensitive information from and about the Embassy with the intention of supplying it to the Russian Federation, and which by virtue of his guilty pleas, might be, directly or indirectly, useful to it,’ said Ms Morgan.

‘In return the defendant received substantial amounts of cash.’

A joint investigation by MI5 and their German counterparts found Smith had been selling classified information to Russia, including the layout of the embassy, since 2020.

Smith communicated to General Major Sergey Chukhurov, the Russian military attaché based out of the Russian Embassy in Berlin, details about the activities, identities, addresses and telephone numbers of various British civil servants, between October and December 2020.

He made an unauthorised photocopy of embassy documents, kept SIM card packaging, and made video recordings of CCTV footage of Dmitry on 5 August 2021, the court heard.

The following day, Smith made further recordings of Dmitry.

Ms Morgan told the court: ‘The defendant denies intending to cause prejudice or any disadvantage to the UK by his actions.

‘The defendant claims that his actions were intended to cause inconvenience and embarrassment to the British Embassy.

‘The defendant was motivated by grievance with his employers and was suffering from mental health issues.

‘The defendant denies receiving any payment for his actions.

‘The defendant has provided no explanation as to why he chose to send material to the Russian Embassy in particular.

‘The defendant claims that in relation to additional sensitive and secret material found in his possession, he had no settled plan as to what he would do with the material, but he could potentially have used it to cause inconvenience or embarrassment to the British Embassy and in order to expose misconduct and lack of security at the Embassy.

‘Sat in very stark contrast, the prosecution’s position is as follows: In terms of general ideology, the defendant expressed support of Russia and support of Vladimir Putin. He also expressed pro-Russia and pro-Putin views.

‘In a letter dated 14 May 2020, the defendant indicated his intention to use his position within the British Embassy to access classified information to be provided to the Russians. His conduct thereafter was in furtherance of that intention.

‘The defendant’s deliberate engagement with the Russian authorities, by providing them with confidential and sensitive information, demonstrates a clear intention to cause prejudice to the UK.

‘The defendant had in his possession confidential and sensitive material dating from as early as 2018. The defendant had no legitimate reason for retaining any of this material.

‘It is implausible to suggest that he only took possession of material within the context of a dispute with his employers or because he intended to expose security lapses.’

An SD card found at Smith’s address included a significant body of images capturing the British Embassy which the prosecution say he intended to supply to Russian authorities.

‘Analysis of the defendant’s financial position in 2021 shows the absence of cash withdrawals indicative of an alternative source of cash.

‘Further, at the time of his arrest, the defendant was in possession of €800 in cash that has no explanation. The prosecution relies on this evidence to demonstrate that the defendant was receiving cash from those to whom he was sending information.

‘The letter that the defendant posted to General Major Chukrov on 17 November 2020 included a covering letter describing the information as being “a small update”, suggestive of previous contact between the defendant and the General.

‘Against the background of the defendant’s existing engagement with Russian authorities, his interest in the visit of Dmitry, an obvious Russian speaker, on 5 August 2021 was not a coincidence.

‘The defendant’s decision to take documents and SIM packaging relating to Dmitry, and to capture footage of him, was within that obvious context of the defendant’s existing engagement with Russian authorities and his awareness that this material would be of interest to them.

‘The defendant’s engagement with “Irina” on 9 August 2021, in particular his willingness to look at images of Russians of interest, was also within the context of his previous engagement with those within the Russian authorities.’

Smith, originally from Paisley, Scotland, has admitted eight offences under the Official Secrets Acts 1911 and 1920, committed between May 2020 and August 2021.

The charges state he committed an act prejudicial to the safety or interest of the State and, according to guidelines, he could face up to 14 years in prison.

The guard denied a ninth like offence alleging he leaked information about embassy building repairs on 6 August 2021 and the charge is expected to be ordered to lie on file.

Mr Justice Mark Wall will sentence Smith after a week-long ‘Newton’ hearing on Friday.

Ms Morgan told the court: ‘The Embassy security team comprised seven people working directly for the embassy. The embassy had a clear desk policy for security reasons. All documentation was to be placed in a secure cabinet at the end of each day.

‘If they [security guards] found any paperwork left out which should not have been, the guard would be required to complete a form and submit it to the Head of Security, Gordan Hay, or his Deputy, David Hayton.

‘This was something the defendant had done on a number of occasions.’

On eight occasions Smith reported paperwork left out, but Embassy security guard Jonathan Shelvin claimed it was ‘very rare’ to find documents left out.

Mr Hayton said he was sure the defendant was able to use the CCTV system and view footage from previous days.

Ms Morgan said: ‘All Embassy security guards had access to the whole building, including secure offices on the fourth and fifth floors. Part of their role was to lock and unlock those areas each day; a role they carried out individually.

‘All Embassy security guards had access to basic IT systems, including having their own email address. This gave them access to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Officer (FCDO) intranet, which includes staff information.’

A telephone list contained all the addresses and telephone numbers of staff and their family members and this list was distributed to UK-based staff.

‘At some point in 2016 and 2017, it was realised that home addresses of Embassy staff would appear tagged on a Google Maps search for the Embassy and plainly that represented a security risk. A list was compiled of the relevant addresses.

‘Mr Hayton, head of security, tasked the defendant and another member of the security team to check Google Maps and other websites to ensure the addresses were not tagged.

‘Guidance was provided to the security guards as to what to do should they be approached by people from particular countries considered to be hostile to the UK, Russia obviously being a likely candidate there.

‘All embassy staff were required to sign a document annually which provided a list of countries that present a particular risk.

‘The defendant never approached anybody about a link or approach from anyone from the countries listed, including Russia.’

Smith was vetted by Mr Hay, the Embassy security manager, in 2016 and offered a job as a security guard starting on 15 June. The obtained ‘sensitive level’ security vetting. It was just two years later that he would go on to offend.

Smith was at the time, and remains, married to a Ukrainian national.

‘The defendant told those he worked with that his wife did not like living in Germany and prior to these events moved from Germany back to Ukraine.

‘The defendant was initially a keen, polite and professional employee. However, his behaviour changed, Mr Hayton, the Deputy Security Manager, believed the change in behaviour was linked to his wife’s return to Ukraine.

‘He described the defendant as expressing anti-UK and anti-Germany views. The defendant said he would never go back to the UK and he expressed views about the war in Ukraine that were opposed to the Ukraine government and supportive of Russia.

‘He also collected memorabilia relating to the Ukrainian military and German uniforms from the Second World War. Photographs taken of his address by a journalist after his arrest by the German authorities showed that he had a Russian flag in his home.

‘From 2019 onwards, employees at the Embassy were concerned about the defendant’s mental health.

‘Mr Hayton believed the defendant’s wife moved back to Ukraine sometime in late 2018. Thereafter, the defendant travelled to Ukraine on more than one occasion.

‘By 2021 a report from a colleague was generated that they were concerned that the defendant would commit suicide, a meeting was arranged … to address these concerns.

‘So a period of mental decline from 2019 onwards resulting in action taken in 2021.

‘The defendant expressed views that were anti-West and anti-Nato to other employees and expressed support for Vladimir Putin.

‘The defendant spoke a lot about Ukraine and discussed travelling there and he expressed views that were hostile towards the German government.’

After his arrest in August 2021 police uncovered a USB stick that revealed 50 ‘live’ files and 10 deleted files ‘of interest’. Some 68 pictures were taken using an LG phone and a separate Sony camera.

‘The file names themselves contain highly sensitive information. 64 of the images were located in a folder “Berlin holiday PicsNew” which had been created and named by the user.

‘The files include 29 pages of images of staff from the British Embassy in Berlin,
photographs of diplomatic passports, photographs of a notice board of the “UK Defence Vision”
including photographs and names of the “Defence Section Embassy Berlin”.’

A further 34 images were taken using an LG-D855 mobile phone.

‘These files were within the same folder but within a sub-directory “Booklet Classified Official Sensitive”.

‘The defendant plainly knew of the status of the documents, for something that was so readily available he was saving the file name.’

The court heard 50 more images relating to British Embassy employees and in some cases with their names were found on a Galaxy smartphone SD card.

An image of a letter dated 14 May 2020 was addressed to Colonel Sivov, a military and defence attaché at the Russian Embassy.

The letter read: ‘I am an employee at the British Embassy in Berlin. For your information, I would like to send you this book from the Defence Section. The book is classified as “Official-Sensitive” which is the equivalent of what was “Restricted/Confidential”.

‘This book is obviously written in English, but I am certain that you will be able to get it translated.

‘Knowing the Embassy, it will take some time before they even realise that it is missing.

‘Obviously, I would like to remain anonymous of the time being, but I do have further information, which I will send you later.

‘I hope that you respect what I have written and understand my reasons for you [me] [sic] wishing to remain anonymous, since no one wishes to get caught.’

On 17 November 2020 Smith posted a letter to General Major Sergey Chukhrov, the military attaché in the Russian Embassy to Berlin. It was posted in Potsdam on British Embassy headed notepaper. Smith was the only British Embassy worker living in Potsdam at the time.

The letter read: ‘Dear Major general Chukhrov, I hereby attach a small update to the British Embassy in Germany.’

Ms Morgan said: ‘It contained highly sensitive information about the British Embassy, and those who worked within it, including names, home addresses and phone numbers.

‘It also enclosed a number of documents, again of a highly sensitive nature, including images of security passes of those working at the British Embassy, with the department the individual was said to work for written on the document in manuscript – in other words added onto by the defendant.’

She detailed the following charges:

[Count 1]

Inside a Sony digital camera contained a Galaxy SD card which had an image of a white envelope containing five 100 Euro notes saved on it. There was a corresponding withdrawal of cash from the defendant’s account around the same time.

A further 147 images included a photograph of a white board relating to staff deployments in Berlin and pictures of rooms inside the Embassy, including communications equipment.

The itinerary of a British military officer for a visit to Germany in June 2021 and a letter from the Australian Ambassador to Germany to the British Ambassador to Germany.

The names and contact details of Army and Royal Air Force exchange personnel in Germany.

A letter from the Secretary of State for International Trade and the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to the Prime Minister, dated 23 November 2020 which was classified as “Secret”.

A visitor notification form for the Embassy dated 16 July 2021 and a Defence and Security Industrial Strategy document dated March 2021.

[Count 2]

‘Videos which show walk around by the defendant, so the defendant physically walking around and filming what he is seeing.

‘When put together those videos show the majority of the Embassy. The defendant filmed outside the windows in order to show where that room is in relation to the street.

‘It is consistent with deliberate acts that the prosecution say the defendant was tasked.’
The videos showed notice boards and pigeonholes. Smith opened in-trays, drawers and cabinets.
Safes and security-pass readers were also shown.

‘Smith’s bank account experienced a notable decrease in the number of transactions debiting his account from January 2021. Ms Morgan said: ‘There was less being purchased on the cards and less withdrawals.

‘So either the defendant had changed his lifestyle patterns, having no need for cash, or the prosecution allege he had another source of cash.’

[Counts 5 and 6]

Footage shown in court from a covert camera placed by Smith’s desk showed him repeatedly lifting his glasses and looking over his shoulder before holding up a small camera to a computer screen and taking photos.

Smith can be heard saying to himself: ‘This’ll do, I’ll get the rest tomorrow.’

Smith was taking pictures of Dmitry entering the embassy.

Talking to himself packing his bag saying: ‘He works at the embassy, they’ll most likely know him.’

Smith was approached by ‘Irina’ at a bus stop after work who was in fact a Security Service as a role-player.

After asking him for directions to see a friend she told Smith: ‘I am from Russian Military Intelligence.’

Smith smiled, laughed and asked: ‘Is this a joke?’

‘This is not a joke’ she said. She said she was concerned about information that could be
‘damaging to Russia and Russian interests. Can you help me?’

Smith said: ‘It’s funny how you have an English accent. Could we meet another day?’

She asked: ‘Have you seen anything that’s been out of the ordinary?’

Smith said: ‘Just the usual run-of-the-mill bullsh-t.’

Irina asked: ‘What is run of the mill bullshit? Anything you can tell me, anything you can give me will help me.’

Smith said: I am going to say nothing, because this has just been sprung on me.

‘I don’t trust the bastards I work for. Would you trust MI5 and MI6? I f–king don’t.’

Smith was shown pictures on a phone of an embassy member of staff who he admitted he recognised from a book of employees.

He told Irina his day was: ‘Boring as f–k. If I told you the truth I don’t want to be here anymore.’

He then referred to his colleagues as ‘Nazi bastards’.

He said: ‘I don’t like my job and I feel stuck, but that’s what it is to be honest.’

addspy…2