A UK Border Force officer and a Hong Kong trade official based in London have been sentenced to prison for spying for China, marking the first such convictions under the National Security Act. Peter Wai, 41, who conducted surveillance on Chinese dissidents in the UK, received a 10-year sentence, while his handler, Bill Yuen, 66, was sentenced to eight years at the Old Bailey.
Details of the Case
After a two-month trial, the pair were convicted under the National Security Act of assisting a foreign intelligence service. Wai, a Border Force officer at Heathrow Airport who previously served in the Metropolitan Police and as a special constable in the City of London Police, was also found guilty of misconduct in a public office for using a Home Office computer system to obtain information about his targets.
The jury heard that Yuen, a senior manager at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, took over handling Wai shortly after they met in 2021 to conduct surveillance on dissidents. In her sentencing remarks, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb described the defendants' actions as "deliberate, concerted and serious," causing "real and significant" harm that left those targeted in fear and distress. She criticized Wai's attitude as "arrogant" and noted his "sense of entitlement" to do as he pleased.
Impact and Reactions
The judge emphasized that the case is one of the first prosecuted under the National Security Act, enacted to address persistent interference by foreign state actors. She stated, "Modern foreign intelligence activity is not confined to orthodox espionage and may take the form of surveillance and information gathering about dissidents. Conduct of this kind threatens not only the individual victims but the sovereignty of the state and public confidence in institutions."
The Chinese embassy condemned the case as an abuse of law aimed at emboldening anti-China elements. The judge noted she could not consider evidence of spying before the law came into force in December 2023.
Targets and Operations
The targets of the "shadow policing" operation included Nathan Law, an exiled politician, and a second young activist in the UK whose family faced persecution in mainland China. Wai also infiltrated Hong Kong pro-democracy groups and gathered information on politicians, including former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith and peer Helena Kennedy.
Yuen, Wai, and a third British national, Matthew Trickett, were arrested in May 2024 after a failed break-in at a flat in Pontefret, West Yorkshire, belonging to Monica Kwong, a personal assistant who fled Hong Kong in 2023. Seven others arrested fled the UK after release due to a lack of interpretation resources to analyze seized devices.
Trickett, 37, an immigration enforcement officer and former Royal Marine, was found dead in a park shortly after being bailed. Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, stated, "Wai and Yuen were targeting pro-democracy campaigners here in the UK and sending highly sensitive details about them and their families to the Hong Kong authorities." She added that the sentences should serve as a warning to others considering similar actions.
Background on Wai
Wai served as a Metropolitan Police officer from February 2015 to April 2019, resigning while under investigation for misconduct related to using his deceased grandfather's address on a loan application. He also accessed police records for friends, though no evidence linked this to spying. Despite this, he later joined the City of London Police as a volunteer constable. A City of London Police spokesperson confirmed that a review found no live misconduct on his file when vetting was granted, though an accelerated misconduct hearing is ongoing.
