Two men, one of them a serving Border Force officer, have been jailed for illegally gathering intelligence on UK-based pro-democracy campaigners for the benefit of the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities, Counter Terrorism Policing has said.
Chi Leung Wai, also known as Peter, 41, of Staines-upon-Thames, was sentenced at the Old Bailey on 18 June to a total of ten years’ imprisonment, while Chung Biu Yuen, 66, of Hackney, was sentenced to eight years. Both had been found guilty on 7 May of assisting a foreign intelligence service, an offence under the National Security Act 2023.
Wai was additionally found guilty of misconduct in public office relating to the misuse of Home Office systems he accessed while working as a Border Force officer, receiving six years for the National Security Act offences and a further four years, to be served consecutively, for the misconduct. Detectives found he had exploited his position to access the files of several Chinese and Hong Kong nationals in the UK.
The head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, Commander Helen Flanagan, whose command led the investigation, said the pair had been “targeting pro-democracy campaigners here in the UK” and sending “highly sensitive details about them and their families” to the Hong Kong authorities. The convictions and sentences, she said, showed “how seriously this kind” of activity “is taken in the UK and that it will not be tolerated”.
Detectives established that Yuen, in his role as an office manager at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, had been in contact with individuals linked to the Hong Kong authorities and was tasking Wai with spying and surveillance focused on UK-based pro-democracy campaigners. Requests came in from Hong Kong and were passed on to Wai and others to carry out, with messages showing Yuen making payments to the pair even as he denied involvement.
The activity was disrupted after police arrested nine people at a flat in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, on 1 May 2024. The property belonged to a woman who had moved to the UK from Hong Kong in 2023 and who had been accused of fraud by her former employer there, an accusation she denied, saying she had been set up. A group including her former boss, Wai and two former Hong Kong police officers had travelled to the flat, posing as maintenance workers and pouring water under her door before forcing entry, only for Counter Terrorism officers already investigating the group to arrive and make arrests.
A third man who was charged, Matthew Trickett, was found dead in a park in Maidenhead on 19 May 2024 after being released on bail, with an inquest into his death expected to take place once the current proceedings conclude.
Flanagan described the investigation as “incredibly complex”, with more than 20 terabytes of data and thousands of messages in multiple languages to examine, and said the case should serve as a “stark warning” to anyone involved in private investigation work that they must be sure it is not being done for the benefit of a foreign state. She added that she hoped the outcome reassured those living in the UK worried about being targeted by a foreign state that police would take action to keep them safe.
