Ex-spy tells how he was sprung at the Copthorne

By JOSIE CLARKE

A New Zealand-born former spy has the British Government scrambling to avert a security crisis after speculation that his memoirs are to be published in a book in Russia.

The Big Breach: From Top Secret to Maximum Security details Ngaruawahia-born Richard Tomlinson's battles with MI6 since 1995 over what he claims was his unfair and illegal dismissal.

Government law officers are preparing to fight efforts, expected in the High Court this week, to allow publication in Britain.

The MI6 service is so secret that the only previous insights have come from fiction accounts such as Ian Fleming's James Bond books.

The British Government is convinced that Russian intelligence is behind the publishing deal, as a revenge against MI6, which was involved in publishing KGB secrets in 1999 in The Mitrokhin Archive.

But Tomlinson, at present living in Italy, has denied the Russians are behind it.

Excerpts from the book, published in Britain's Sunday Times newspaper and placed at length on the paper's website yesterday, give details of Tomlinson's experiences with MI6 and information on British spying.

They also include passages on New Zealand, including his allegation that Auckland's Copthorne Hotel helped MI6 raid his room while he was a guest in 1998.

Tomlinson checked into the Copthorne after he was thrown off a Qantas plane bound for Sydney. Airline officials told him he had been refused an Australian visa.

"Back at the Copthorne, the receptionist insisted that, as the hotel was full, he would have to give me the main suite at the price of a normal room. The hotel didn't appear full to me, but I took the key," Tomlinson writes.

He later heard knocking on his hotel room door and a woman's voice saying she thought she had left something in the room.

"There was no spyhole so I opened the door.

"A pugnacious Maori led the charge. 'Get back over there, in the corner,' he yelled. Three officers followed.

"The glowering Maori looked disappointed I had not hit him."

He was told police had a warrant for his arrest, and was ordered to strip. His belongings were carefully searched. An MI6 agent arrived during the search.

Tomlinson said every detail on the warrant was correct, including the hotel room number, explaining why the receptionist had insisted he took the suite.

He heard more voices in the corridor and the agent entered the room. "What the hell are you doing here?" I shouted, leaping to my feet and causing the Maori's eyes to light up.

"Get out of this room now!" I shouted. I turned to the Maori, who was limbering up with a gentle haka. "If he doesn't get out of here right now, you can have your fun ... "

"The New Zealand police searched my hotel room more professionally and thoroughly than the French. They found the Psion disk hidden inside a clunky British adaptor plug. The porky officer smiled when he pulled it out. I smiled, too, as I had backed up a copy in an Auckland internet cafe."

Gordon Wilson, chief operating officer of the Millennium, Copthorne and Quality Hotels group, said he could not recall the incident. The general manager of the hotel at the time had since left the company.

Tomlinson also claims that he was served with 85 pages of "legal jargon" at Auckland Airport intended to stop him speaking to the media in New Zealand. "MI6 could not have used a more stupid tactic as everybody wanted to know why it had gagged me. The next few days were a whirlwind of interviews."

British Government sources have suggested that the book was set up by Russian intelligence agents who offered Tomlinson, aged 39, a deal worth about $115,000.

Tomlinson's lawyer in New Zealand, Warren Templeton, admitted surprise at the timing of the book's publication, and said he had been trying to finalise a mediation hearing with lawyers acting for Tomlinson's former employers.

"It is probably the manifestation of a lot of upset and frustration over the delays that have gone on over the last two years trying to resolve this grievance, and of the apparent refusal by the other side to resolve the issue on a fair basis.

"I think Richard felt that enough was enough, and that he was going to publish the book."

Mr Templeton said he had received a letter within the past two days from Britain's Treasury Solicitor on behalf of Tomlinson's former employer, saying they no longer wanted to attempt mediation because the book was to be published in Russia.

Mr Templeton said he did not know who was publishing the book. He understood the book was restricted to Tomlinson's memoirs of harassment and other problems after he left MI6.

Tomlinson, who yesterday dismissed as "comical" claims that Russian intelligence services were to publish his memoirs, said he had been hounded by MI6 across four continents since his release from jail in 1998.

He was jailed in 1997 for breaking the Official Secrets Act, when he tried to sell his account of his time with MI6, which let him go after he had worked there for four years.

The timing of Tomlinson's publication is acutely embarrassing for the British Government since ministers are about to authorise the publication of memoirs by Stella Rimington, the former director-general of MI5, although they are expected to have most controversial passages removed.