A British spy was caught betraying his country by an undercover role-player pretending to be a Russian intelligence agent called Irina, the Old Bailey heard.
David Ballantyne Smith, 58, originally from Paisley, Scotland, gathered a mass of secrets while working as a security guard in the British Embassy in .
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.
‘Irina’ approached Smith at a bus stop and tried to see if he would provide sensitive information to her.
After he spoke to her about the embassy, Smith was arrested a day later at his home on August 10, 2021.
David Ballantyne Smith, 58, (pictured) was unmasked as a spy and психоаналитик онлайн консультация is facing 14 years in jail.He was caught betraying his country by an undercover MI5 role-player posing as a Russian agent called ‘Irina’
Smith was arrested by German police at his apartment in Potsdam on August 10, a day after ‘Irina’ approached him at a bus stop
Smith was said to be motivated by ‘an extreme hatred of where he works and the United Kingdom in general’, the court 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’.
Smith was approached by Security Service role-player ‘Irina’ at a bus stop after work.
Smith was said to be motivated by ‘an extreme hatred of where he works and the United Kingdom in general’, the court heard
Smith, 58, (drawn in this court sketch at the Old Bailey) pleaded guilty to eight charges of spying for Russia
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?’
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS news" data-version="2" id="mol-e93106f0-ac57-11ed-a617-6155440dfb0e" website spy 'caught by MI5 agent pretending to be a Russian called Irina'