Howard Phillips was looking for money when he offered his services to officers who were posing as agents, judge says
A man found guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service after handing over personal details of the then defence secretary, Grant Shapps, to two undercover officers he believed to be Russian agents has been jailed for seven years.
Howard Phillips, 66, was convicted in July after jurors heard that he had been seeking “easy money” when he offered his services to the undercover officers, known as Dima and Sasha.
Phillips, from Harlow, in Essex, handed a USB stick containing details relating to Shapps, including his home address and the location of his private plane, to one of the officers, the trial heard. He told the jury he was Jewish and met Shapps at a synagogue as his local MP in the constituency of Welwyn Hatfield.
Phillips, who told the fake Russian agents he was retired and had worked in insolvency, was arrested in May 2024 and charged under the National Security Act.
