Richard Tomlinson

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Richard Tomlinson
Born (1963-01-13) 13 January 1963 (age 61)
Hamilton, New Zealand
NationalityBritish/New Zealand[4]
Alma materGonville and Caius College, Cambridge
OccupationPilot
Espionage activity
AllegianceBritain
Service branchMI6
Service years1991–1995
RankIntelligence officer
CodenameD/813317 (staff number)[1]
CodenameT (press anonymity)[2]
OperationsRussia • Bosnia • Iran
Height1.9 m (6 ft 3 in)[3]

Richard John Charles Tomlinson (born 13 January 1963) is a former officer of the British

Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). He argued that he was subjected to unfair dismissal from MI6 in 1995, and attempted to take his former employer to a tribunal
. MI6 refused, arguing that to do so would breach state security.

Tomlinson was imprisoned under the

public hearing.[5]

Tomlinson then attempted to assist

Eastern European official, but that the proposal had been swiftly rejected by management.[6]

In 2009 MI6 apologised for its treatment of Tomlinson, dropped all threat of charges and agreed to unfreeze

royalties on his book.[7] Staff at MI6 have been allowed employment tribunals since 2000, and have been able to unionise since 2008.[8]

Early life

Richard John Charles Tomlinson was born in

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1981.[11]

His fellow student, historian

Rotary Foundation, allowing him to study in the country of his choice for a year. Consequently, he enrolled in a political science course at the University of Buenos Aires, where he became fluent in the Spanish language.[11] He continued to pursue his aeronautical interests and qualified as a glider pilot with the Fuerza Aérea Argentina. During 1988–9, Tomlinson worked in Mayfair, London, for management consultancy company Booz Allen Hamilton.[11]

Military and MI6 service

Vauxhall Cross
, London

Finding his desk job unsatisfying, Tomlinson joined the Territorial Army in September 1989 and, after passing selection, served as a reservist with the

Sahara desert solo on a motorcycle.[16] He enjoyed the experience, subsequently applied to join MI6, and officially joined the Service on 23 September 1991.[17] He completed his training with MI6 and claims he was the best recruit on his course, being awarded the rarely given "Box 1" attribute by his instructing officers including Nicholas Langman
.

Tomlinson worked in the "SOV/OPS" department, operating during the ending phases of the Cold War against the Soviet Union.[18] He was posted to a diplomatic role in Moscow, and was one of the agents responsible for the retrieval of the Mitrokhin Archive in 1992.[18] From March 1992 until September 1993, he worked in the Eastern European Controllerate of MI6 under the staff designation of UKA/7.[19][20] Whilst working there, it was discovered that the Conservative Party had been receiving donations from Serbian supporters.[20] In November 1993, he joined the Balkans Controllerate, and was posted to Sarajevo for six months as the MI6 representative in Bosnia during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.[1] There he was a "targeting officer", with a mission to identify potential informants and gather intelligence.[20] A soldier who escorted Tomlinson to Bosnia described him as a "liability", a "sulk" and "totally unprofessional", although Tomlinson has disputed this.[21]

From 1994 to 1995, Tomlinson worked in the operational

chemical weapons in order to gain intelligence on Iran's military programme.[23] Tomlinson's description of his Iranian activities are generally considered to be true, due to his personal involvement and knowledge of details that only an insider would know.[23]

On 13 May 1994, Tomlinson resigned from MI6, suggesting in his letter of resignation that he had lost the motivation for a career with the organisation. He was later permitted to rescind his resignation.[24]

MI6 dismissed him on 22 May 1995 as he came to the end of his extended

Foreign Secretary, Malcolm Rifkind. Having no further legal recourse to appeal against his dismissal, Tomlinson left the United Kingdom, and pursued his arguments against MI6 by publishing articles in the international press protesting his treatment, whilst working on a book detailing his career in the Service.[11]

In 1998, the Parliamentary

Intelligence and Security Committee recommended that MI6 should be subject to UK employment law.[32]
Since 2000, employees of MI6 have had the same employment rights as other British citizens, including written contracts and access to employment tribunals. However, MI6 refused to allow these procedures to be applied retroactively to Tomlinson's case. MI6 have not succeeded in obtaining another PII certificate since the Tomlinson case.

The Big Breach

Fort Monckton in Hampshire, which Tomlinson asserts is an MI6 training facility

Tomlinson moved to the

duress) but retained the job for only a few months before he emigrated to Australia, where his younger brother lived.[35]

Tomlinson returned to Britain, and in October 1997 was arrested and accused of breaking the

Transworld, a British publisher.[36] On 18 December 1997 he was sentenced to 12 months in prison after pleading guilty.[17]

In August 1998, after serving six months in prison and four months on probation, Tomlinson left the UK to live in exile.[36] He set about completing The Big Breach, which was published in 2001 in Russia.[36] The book alleged that MI6 had infiltrated the German Bundesbank with a mole, and that the Service had a special means of writing in invisible ink. Other revelations were already public knowledge, such as that MI6 recruits are trained at Fort Monckton in Hampshire, and that agents in the field often use the cover of being a journalist.[37]

After the

Court of Appeal of England and Wales ruled in his favour, the book was made available in the UK.[36] Following the publication, the British Government obtained a High Court order to confiscate all proceeds from the book, on the grounds that the government owned the copyright to anything written by Tomlinson.[36] In September 2008, MI6 ended all legal objection to the publication of The Big Breach, released the proceeds from the publication to Tomlinson, and admitted that the organisation's previous legal actions against him were disproportionate. It still refused to reinstate him or compensate him for the loss of his career and pension. Since 2009, Tomlinson has been able to travel freely to the UK.[38]

Reception

The Economist criticised the "mess" that MI6 had made in failing to handle the Tomlinson case properly: "Recruiting Mr Tomlinson looks like a bad mistake, and his sacking seems to have been clumsily handled."[37] The newspaper's reviewer complained: "there is little useful information in this breathless, whingeing and ill-written volume that a diligent reader of books about spying would not know already."[37]

Jimmy Burns, reviewing the book for the Financial Times, speculated that it was plausible that "MI6's senior management realised they had made a terrible mistake in recruiting someone who thought that espionage was just one big adventure."[39] He concluded, however, that the book "left me with the feeling that the spooks in Whitehall could have avoided a great deal of adverse publicity by agreeing to Tomlinson's original proposal: an employment tribunal held in camera."[39]

Former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela reacted angrily to Tomlinson's accusation in the book that he had a long-standing relationship with MI6, describing it as a "disgraceful fabrication".[40] Tomlinson removed the references to Mandela in the British edition of the book, conceding that Mandela was probably unaware that the officials with whom he spoke were affiliated with MI6.[41]

Other alleged breaches and assertions

List of MI6 agents

In May 1999, a list of 116 alleged MI6 agents was sent to the

Andrew Fulton, who had recently retired, Christopher Steele, David Spedding and Richard Dearlove.[44][45][46] MI6 biographer Stephen Dorril explained that most of the names were "light-cover" sources who worked out of embassies or missions posing as diplomats.[47] Dorril argued, "it is well known that rival intelligence networks know who these people are and accept them."[47] MI6 claimed that Tomlinson had originated the list, which was something he had previously threatened to do, although he denied responsibility for it, and MI6 were unable to substantiate their accusation.[48][49]

Tomlinson wrote, "If MI6 had set out to produce a list that caused me the maximum incrimination, but caused them the minimum damage, they could not have done a better job."[50] He also said, "It mystifies me why MI6 gave the list credibility. If they were really worried about the safety of their agents they could have denied it."[48] After The Sun newspaper called Tomlinson a "traitor" and published his email address, he received death threats, and fearing for his life, went into hiding for a time.[42][51] Government officials later conceded that the list did not originate from Tomlinson.[3]

Diana, Princess of Wales

During 2008, Tomlinson was a witness for the

Henri Paul, had been an MI6 informant, and that her death resembled plans he saw during 1992 for the assassination of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević, using a bright light to cause a traffic accident.[52]

At the

Paris Ritz but he could not be certain that this person was necessarily Henri Paul.[52]

Post-MI6 activities

In August 1998, Tomlinson left the United Kingdom for France, and shortly afterwards moved to New Zealand.[36] Later that month he was deported from the United States, and in October 1998 he moved to Switzerland, before being expelled in June 1999 after the Swiss authorities described his presence there as "undesirable".[3][53] He moved to Germany until he was hounded out by officials, whereupon he moved to Italy.[3] In 2001 he left Rimini in Italy, where he had been working as a waiter and a snowboarding instructor, for the south of France near Cannes where he worked as a yacht broker for BCR Yachts.[54] From 2006 to 2007, Tomlinson maintained a series of blogs detailing his treatment.[55] His Riviera home was raided by police in 2006.[56]

In 2007, government lawyers decided not to prosecute him for publishing The Big Breach.[57] The Crown Prosecution Service said there was no real prospect of conviction in a jury trial, which would reveal "sensitive matters".[57] In 2009, MI6 agreed to allow Tomlinson to return to Britain, unfreeze royalties from his book and drop the threat of charges if he agreed to stop disclosing information about MI6 and speaking to the media.[7] According to The Sunday Times, MI6 also apologised for its "unfair treatment" of him.[7]

He now lives permanently in France and has retrained as a professional pilot.[58]

Personal life

In 1998, Tomlinson was described as possessing "the air of slight arrogance that goes with good looks, a hard-trained body and a sharp intellect".[59] The Geneva press reported that he had a "perfect command of French".[60]

References

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  60. ^ Fleck, Fiona (15 May 1999). "Swiss press presents Tomlinson as a modern-day Bond". The Times.

External links

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