A Border Force officer and his “handler” have been jailed over their work for Chinese intelligence in the UK.

Chi Leung “Peter” Wai, 40, was sentenced to 10 years and Chung Biu “Bill” Yuen, 65, given an eight year term after being found guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service, an offence under the National Security Act.

Wai, who used his position to access the Home Office computer system to track Hong Kong dissidents in the UK, was also convicted of misconduct in public office.

The judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told the men that their actions “threaten the sovereignty of the state” during sentencing remarks at the Old Bailey on Thursday.

The dual Chinese-British nationals were found guilty after a trial last month.

They were involved in what detectives described as a “shadow policing operation… conducted on behalf of the Hong Kong authorities, and by extension, the Chinese state”.

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Wai was a former UK police officer who began working as a Border Force officer at Heathrow Airport in December 2020.

He used his access to a vast database of information about foreign nationals in the UK to trace Hong Kongers who had fled pro-democracy crackdowns for his Chinese contacts.

He was sentenced to six years for assisting a foreign intelligence service and an additional four years for misconduct in public office.

Yuen, a former Hong Kong police officer who went on to work as the office manager of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, became Wai’s contact with Chinese authorities.

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The case raised serious questions about foreign interference and the ability of hostile states to gather information on individuals living in Britain.

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When Wai started working at Heathrow, he sent a message to the former chief superintendent of Hong Kong Police’s Criminal Intelligence Bureau Eddie Ma, who still had links to the Chinese state.

“Will not let any cockroaches in,” Wai wrote.

During the trial, the jury heard that “special attention” was also paid to British politicians, such as Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith.

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[Wai] was in the Royal Navy for eight years, and worked for a company providing security for events in Chinatown. Wai had also set up his own company, D5 Security.

After leaving the Met, he became a volunteer constable for City of London Police.

Wai also drew a fellow Border Force officer, an ex-Royal Marine called Matthew Trickett, into his surveillance of Hong Kong dissidents, the court heard.

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Head of the counter-terrorism at the Crown Prosecution Service Bethan David said Wai and Yuen’s conduct was “deliberate, co-ordinated and carried out with full knowledge of who it would benefit”.

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