A British embassy security guard has been jailed for more than 13 years after a judge told him his “treachery” spying for Russia had put his former colleagues at “maximum risk”.
David Ballantyne Smith, 58, originally from Paisley, Scotland, copied secret documents he found in unlocked filing cabinets and on desks at the embassy, including a letter to the then prime minister, Boris Johnson.
He also leaked details of staff involved in defence work, including their home addresses and phone numbers, and copied personal pictures of their relatives that he found on their desks, saving the material on to a USB stick under the name “Berlin holiday PicsNew”.
One of the documents of a “highly sensitive nature” was written by someone referred to only as “Diplomat X” who was the lead officer dealing with Russia at the embassy.
Smith, a former aircraftman with the RAF, had married a Russian-speaking Ukrainian who had returned to the Donbas region in July 2018, leaving him alone in his flat, drinking up to seven pints a day, he told the court.
German police later found Smith had a large Russian Federation flag in the corner of his living room in Potsdam and a life-size cuddly toy of a Rottweiler wearing a Russian military hat.
On the inside of his locker at the British embassy was a cartoon of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, in a military uniform, holding the neck of the former German chancellor Angela Merkel, in a Nazi uniform, and the words in German: “Russia, please free us once again.” There was also a dictionary of Russian obscenities.
Smith pleaded guilty to eight charges under the Official Secrets Act 1911 and 1920 but claimed he did not intentionally cause any harm. He told the court he only intended to cause the embassy “embarrassment” but the judge, Mr Justice Wall, told him: “I reject any suggestion that you are remorseful for your actions. Your regrets are no more than self-pity.
“Had you been truly remorseful, you would not have lied on oath to me in that hearing as you did. You were a security guard at the embassy. It is not a senior position but it is one which imposed on you a high level of trust and responsibility. It was your job to ensure that the embassy was secure and its staff safe.”
The judge said Smith had “put those people at maximum risk” and added: “When you did what you did, it was the most obvious breach of the trust placed in you.”
Smith had stopped withdrawing cash from his current account at the start of February 2021 when he took a photo of a white envelope containing five €100 notes and sent it to his wife on the Telegram messaging platform, before deleting it.
During the search of Smith’s home address, another €800 was found in €100 denomination notes, bringing the total he was paid to at least €1,300, although prosecutors believe that was “just the tip of the iceberg”.
The judge said there was “unsurprisingly no documentation” that recorded the amount he had received, but told Smith: “You were paid by the Russian authorities for your treachery. I regard these payments as a significant factor in increasing your culpability for your actions.”
Smith was caught after a letter he had written to Gen Maj Sergey Chukhrov, the military attache in the Russian embassy to Berlin, disguised as a British embassy communication, was intercepted in November 2020.
MI5 set up a sting operation, sending in one of their “role play” officers – as “Dmitry”, a Russian “walk-in” – wearing a face mask, glasses and flat cap and carrying documents hidden in a copy of Die Welt newspaper.
Smith fell for the ruse and took CCTV images of Dmitry’s face, saved the packaging from the “burner” phone he had been given and copied one of the documents he handed over.
Two days later, he was approached at a tram stop in Potsdam as he arrived home by another MI5 role play officer, calling herself “Irina”. After asking directions, she told him: “Mr Smith, it is you I have come to see,” and they sat on a park bench while she showed him photographs of people she pretended were suspected moles in the Russian embassy.
He looked nervous and told her: “I am going to speak to someone and once that person confirms, I will speak to you again. I don’t trust the bastards I work for. Would you trust MI5 or MI6? For all I know you could be working for them.”
Smith was arrested by German police the next day.
Wearing a green T-shirt, blue zip-up top and loose-fitting jeans, Smith sat throughout the hearing in the dock in the middle of court two at the Old Bailey in London, with his hands on the earphones he needed to amplify the judge’s remarks.
He was jailed for six years and two months for sending details of the activities, identities, addresses and telephone numbers of members of the embassy to the Russian military attache.
The judge sentenced him to another seven years, consecutively, for collecting further information, classified as “secret” or below, that was “intended to be, directly, or indirectly, useful to an enemy, namely the Russian state”. He will serve half the sentence before his release, or two-thirds if he chooses to serve it in Germany.
