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He apparently dreamed of emulating James Bond, but retired insolvency worker Howard Phillips has been left looking more like Walter Mitty. The 66-year-old, described as a ‘fantasist’ by his own lawyer, was today jailed for seven years after trying to spy for Russia . Phillips, who offered personal info about ex-Defence Secretary Sir Grant Shapps , was told by a judge on Friday he had been “prepared to betray your country for money”. It comes after the Brit, from Harlow, Essex, was convicted in July of attempting to spy for what he believed to be Russian intelligence service agents. Phillips intended to help two apparent Russian agents called "Sasha" and "Dima", including by passing on personal info about ex-Tory MP Sir Grant, helping with travel logistics and booking hotels. But the duo were actually undercover British intelligence officers and a jury found Phillips guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service under the National Security Act. Sentencing him at Winchester Crown Court on Friday, judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told him: "You were prepared to betray your country for money. I sentence you on the basis you are not ideologically driven but motivated by money. "You took a grave risk and didn't care what damage you caused. Through the deliberate work of the security services you were caught before providing material assistance to a foreign intelligence service so the danger was averted." Phillips had "a personality with narcissistic tendencies and an overblown sense of his own importance", the judge said. She said: "He is an intelligent man with a distorted concept of his own significance and was unwilling to own up in public that he was prepared to behave in a dishonourable and treacherous way." She added: "He clearly kept up with current affairs and he would have been informed of the extreme actions Russia is prepared to undertake against its targets." Phillips intended to assist Russian agents from the end of 2023 until May last year, the trial was told. He offered to pass on Sir Grant's contact details as well as the location where he kept his private plane in order to "facilitate the Russians in listening on British defence plans", the trial heard. In a victim impact statement read to the court, Sir Grant, who was defence secretary at the time, said that he was "shocked" when he was briefed on Phillips' activities and concerned for the safety of his family. Sir Grant said that he recalled going to dinner at the home of Phillips when he moved to the area in 2002, adding: "I feel it has been a complete breach of trust by Mr Phillips. He chose to take whatever information he had and attempted to sell it to a foreign intelligence service thereby, wantonly, putting myself, my family and ultimately the country at risk. My personal details provided by Mr Phillips are extremely sensitive and again I would say that any disclosure places myself and my family at a very real and serious risk. "What is unacceptable is one individual's reckless behaviour exposing my entire family to the extremely serious risks that come from a foreign intelligence service's activities. The UK has enough to do dealing with external threats, it's shocking to find that someone in the neighbourhood would think it a good idea to try to sell information about the UK defence secretary to an unfriendly foreign state." Jocelyn Ledward KC, prosecuting, said Phillips had been motivated by money to offer a "concierge service" to the UK agents who were "roleplaying" as Russian agents and the court heard he offered his "100% loyalty and dedication". She said: "He had lived well beyond his means for some time and he had made no provision for his retirement and was reliant on the generosity of others, even for housing." Ms Ledward added: "He accepted he did all that in the knowledge of the type of activity carried out by the agents of the Russian intelligence service on UK soil in the past including assassination and attempted assassination." Jeremy Dein KC, defending, said his client had made a "monumental error of judgment" and had acted to "boost his own ego" after his life had "collapsed". He described Phillips as "eccentric", "zany" and a "fantasist" before adding that he was "proudly British, pro-western, proudly Jewish". He said: "He was a fantasist. He believed he could manage Arsenal football club or even England." He added: "This was an ageing man whose life had collapsed, who was clearly not thinking straight and was desperate for money. He had been living in his car at one stage and everything was out of sync with the hard-wording and dedicated life he had lived. There is nothing to suggest that, thinking straight, Mr Phillips would have wanted to undermine the United Kingdom ." Meanwhile, Phillips’ ex-wife, Amanda Phillips, told the trial that he "would dream about being like James Bond", and he watched films to do with MI5 and MI6 as he was "infatuated with it". Phillips previously claimed he had contacted the Russian embassy in early 2024 in a bid to track and expose Russian agents to assist Israel . He told jurors he ascertained "from the onset" that "Dima" and "Shasha" were "definitely not Russian" and were undercover individuals, but that he carried on "playing a role" around these agents in order to "test the waters". Commander Dominic Murphy, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said after the hearing: "This case demonstrates the serious consequences for anyone who thinks working on behalf of the Russian intelligence service is a way of earning easy money.” Security minister Dan Jarvis said: "Those who offer their services to foreign powers seeking to undermine the UK will be stopped - our national security is not for sale.”
