A prospective Border Force worker accused of trying to help Russian intelligence services told undercover British spooks that he wanted out of the ‘nine-to-five’, a court was told.
Howard Phillips, 65, is also alleged to have told officers pretending to work for Vladimir Putin’s state that he had personal information about the then defence secretary Grant Shapps.
Phillips, from Harlow in Essex, is on trial charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service under the National Security Act.
A covert recording of a meeting between the defendant and undercover officers – who he believed were called ‘Dima’ and ‘Sasha’ – was made at the London Bridge Hotel on April 26 last year.
In the audio played to jurors today, he was heard telling the men he wanted to work for Russia in exchange for financial independence from the UK.
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‘If I’m financially independent from the UK, I don’t have to be part of it,’ he said. ‘The moment I work for a company I don’t have the freedom anymore. I don’t want to have to rely on going back to work.’
Phillips added: ‘I’ve worked nine-to-five in offices all my life, I want to be doing something different. It’s not for me. It never was for me.’
Phillips said he felt Russia had been unfairly maligned in the West, the jury at Winchester Crown Court was told.
‘There’s been a lot of discredit accorded to Russia – I think a lot of it is absolute rubbish,’ he said in the recording.
‘Maybe there’s an element of truth, but none of us are without sin – Britain and America do what we have to do.’
He told the intelligence officers: ‘There’s nothing about me – I’m an English tourist. No suspicions.
‘I feel you can benefit from me and I can benefit from you.’
Phillips said he was motivated by a desire to do ‘something different’ and ‘provide a benefit to other people on a quid pro quo basis’.
Giving evidence from behind a curtain, the officer who posed as Dima spoke in a regional British accent, though he used a thick Russian accent in the covert recordings.
Phillips allegedly offered to help with booking hotels, picking people up from airports, managing travel logistics and creating a layer of plausible deniability for agents operating in the UK.
He had applied for a job with the UK Border Force in late 2023 and had recently obtained security clearance, jurors were told.
In the meeting, he said the vetting process meant he had already provided information about his personal life, including past addresses and relationships. He told the undercover officers that this gave him a degree of official credibility and access.
Later that day, Phillips began using the encrypted app Signal to communicate with the officers.
A message sent to him afterwards said: ‘Today was very pleasing. We look forward to work with what seems very natural talent.’
He later asked for a ‘gesture of goodwill in advance’ – suggesting a financial reward. The intelligence officers replied: ‘Please do not worry – we always compensate people appropriately.’
Days later they asked Phillips to assist with an upcoming visit from a ‘very important individual’ from their organisation.
He was instructed to book a hotel room, purchase a Samsung A15 smartphone and EE pay-as-you-go SIM card, and set up an email account under the name ‘Edward Kennington’.
He was also told to meet at Lakeside Shopping Centre in Essex at 3pm on May 9. At that meeting, he was allegedly handed a brown envelope containing £500.
Jurors were then played a secret recording of the meeting, in which Phillips claimed to know Shapps’ home address and home phone number.
‘I was invited to his house with a lot of other people,’ he said.
‘He was the MP for Welwyn Hatfield – then he became chairman of the Conservative Party, now he’s the secretary of state.’
He also told the officers he knew details about Shapps’ private aircraft, the court previously heard.
Jurors were shown a letter that Phillips was allegedly handed during that meeting, which read: ‘Dear Howard, thank you for your continued cooperation. Moscow very pleased with ongoing progress.’
He reportedly asked that, going forward, the officers refer to Moscow as ‘mother’ in their messages.
It is alleged that after this point, Phillips continued to assist the supposed agents and did not withdraw his Border Force job application, which prosecutors say would have provided him with further access to Government information.
Phillips denies one count of engaging in conduct to assist a foreign intelligence service.
The trial continues.
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