A Border Force official and a retired Hong Kong police officer have been found guilty of spying for China on British soil.Dual Chinese-British nationals Peter Wai, 40, and Bill Yuen, 65, conducted “shadow policing” operations on Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters living in the UK.

They were arrested after a failed bid to snatch a former Hong Kong resident, Monica Kwong, from her flat in Pontefract, West Yorkshire. Following a two-month Old Bailey trial, the pair were convicted of assisting a foreign intelligence service under the National Security Act. Wai was also convicted on Thursday of misconduct in a public office by searching the Home Office computer system for people of interest to Hong Kong authorities. The court had heard how Wai worked for the UK Border Force, was a City of London Police special constable having formerly been in the Royal Navy. He had gathered intelligence on the orders of ex-Hong Kong superintendent Yuen, who was a senior manager at the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office (HKETO) in London, said to be an extension in the UK of the Hong Kong government.

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Targets included Hong Kong dissidents – with “special attention” paid to British politicians, including senior Tory MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith.

The defendants referred to targets as “cockroaches” as they gathered intelligence on what cars they were driving, where they lived and their social media accounts.

Prominent campaigner Nathan Law, who has a one million Hong Kong dollar bounty on his head (£95,680), was pictured leaving the Oxford Union during one surveillance operation.

Personal assistant Ms Kwong had left Hong Kong with her young son in 2023 amid accusations of involvement in a £16 million fraud, which she denied.

Wai had searched the Home Office computer system for information about Ms Kwong and pro-democracy campaigners.Having located Ms Kwong, the defendants put a team together to access her home using “underhand means, deception and then force to achieve their ends”, jurors were told.

The team carried out surveillance and then tried to “trick” their way into her home, including by posing as electricians who had come to repair a fuse, the court had heard.

Source: Daily Express :: World Feed