Father-of-four accused of plotting to spy for Russia claims he planned to ‘expose Russian agents'

Howard Phillips, 65, of Harlow in Essex, is on trial over allegedly intending to assist the Russian Intelligence Service by helping people he believed were agents working for Moscow.

Giving evidence at Winchester Crown Court on Monday, Phillips told jurors he wrote a letter to the Russian embassy in early 2024 “portraying that I had information and if they were interested, they should contact me”.

He said he did not in fact have any information, but wrote it ”because of events that were happening in the world”.“I was intending to track and expose Russian agents,” the defendant told jurors.

Asked by his lawyer Jeremy Dein KC what events he was referring to, he said: “In particular, the war between Israel and Gaza and the Ukrainian-Russian War.”

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“I was very frustrated with the delay in the US senate’s agreeing to finance and provide weapons and material to Ukrainians,” Phillips told the court.

“Watching every day of the lines moving further into Ukraine by the Russian army.

“It was a very frustrating situation and I felt the West wasn’t doing enough to stem the flow of Russian advance.

“I was intending to expose and a track a Russian agent who may be operating within the UK. It was a small part to play… it was a small part that possibly I could do.”

Asked why, Phillips, who told jurors he was of Jewish faith, said: “Because they are the enemy. And also there is another side to it because at the time the media portrayal of Israel was very negative.”

He said if he exposed a Russian agent, he could “take that to the Israelis” who in turn could reveal it to Britain and “gain credit for it”.

“Then that would facilitate benefit to the Israelis by the (UK) media having to portray the way they had helped the UK, which goes on behind the scenes anyway,” Phillips said.

Jurors heard Phillips, who has four children, grew up in Swiss Cottage, north London.

He left school at 17 to work at his father’s fur factory in the East End before beginning a career in insolvency.

Phillips, who wore a dark grey suit, white shirt and black tie in the witness box, told jurors: “I love the UK, I have a lot of views as to what is happening and going on behind the scenes but I absolutely love this country.”

He said he would “not ever” do anything to deliberately harm the UK.

Phillips, who is accused of obtaining and passing on Sir Grant Shapps’ contact details to a foreign intelligence service, told jurors he met Sir Grant “about four times”, first at the Potters Bar Synagogue, of which they were both members.

He said he and his then-wife also met Lady Shapps, but that the couple were “more acquaintances than friends”.

Jurors were shown a number of letters found on a hard drive from Phillips’s computer which was seized by police, including to former prime ministers Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, actor Tom Cruise’s agent, actress Jennifer Aniston, and the chief executive of BP.

In a letter to Ms Truss, dated October 7 2022, Phillips told her he had long been a Conservative voter.

He wrote about a series of issues, in one passage stating: “Immigration has been an immense tribulation for these shores for way too long and even a complete border shut down could still now be too little, too late.“

The demographics in certain areas have been changed. London is no longer recognisable, and the home counties have been affected.”In other letters, he made reference to his hobbies and skills which he told the court he hoped would lead to “opportunities”.

He sent several of the same letter to different addresses for Ms Aniston, in which he described himself as “an ordinary English guy, wanting to meet with you in person to have a chat”.Phillips wrote that he would be “happy to fly to the US”.

Asked why, he told jurors he was “just knocking on a door for potential opportunity. Within the roles of acting or doing something.”

The court heard Phillips’ finances were “decreasing rapidly” at the time, but he denied asking for money when he wrote to the Russian embassy, adding he did not believe he would get any money from them.

For some of the first few months in 2024, Phillips lived at his then-girlfriend’s home in Ware, Hertfordshire, and the court heard he began writing an autobiography, which he sent excerpts of to Wetherspoon, the pub chain.

In an extract shown to the jury, in April he wrote: “For the past five years, I have been on top of the world… but I am now sitting in a Wetherspoon’s pub, having spent the night sleeping in a car.”

Phillips told jurors he also wrote to the Iranian and Chinese embassies at the same time as he contacted the Russians, with the same plan to assist Israel in mind.

Prosecutors claim Phillips believed people he began communicating with in March 2024 were Russian agents called “Sasha” and “Dima” but the 65-year-old claimed he began to “formulate in my mind the situation was becoming ludicrous”.

The court previously heard “Dima” and “Sasha” were undercover British intelligence officers.On April 4 2024 Phillips left the “agents” a USB stick on the exposed seat shaft of a bicycle parked on Polygon Road, London, near St Pancras and Euston stations, the court has heard.

“If there was any realism and fact to it, it would have been at the embassy, not depositing a USB at a bike in the middle of London,” Phillips told the court.He said he “wasn’t sure” who the people were, but claimed “I knew what they were not”.

Phillips told jurors he felt offering Sir Grant’s information to the “agents” would be “dangling a very big, juicy carrot, to see how they would react”. He was arrested last May 16 after meeting with an “agent” at a coffee shop in central London.

Phillips told the court that when he was arrested, he was “stressed and anxious” but “trying to evaluate what was truly happening”.

Prosecutor Jocelyn Edwards KC asked Phillips if he accepts that Russia is a hostile state to the UK, to which he agreed.

The court heard that as well as emailing politicians and actors, Phillips had also emailed the consular secretary at the Israeli embassy in the UK in December 2023.

Ms Edwards asked: “Were you or were you not offering to assist a foreign (Israel’s) intelligence service?” “Ok, take it as a yes,”

Phillips said, having previously told jurors that Israel is an ally of the UK, and he had offered to “act and work abroad” for Israel.

Phillips denies one count of engaging in conduct to assist the Russian intelligence service, in breach of the National Security Act.

The trial continues.