Ladybbird

Former British Soldier Daniel Khalife Jailed For Only 14 Years After Spying For Iran And Escape From Prison Under Food Truck

He was the amateur spy who blew his own cover and whose own lawyer described as hapless bearing more resemblance to Scooby Doo than James Bond.

MailOnline 3 FEB 2025








He was the amateur spy who blew his own cover and whose own lawyer described as hapless, bearing more resemblance to Scooby Doo than James Bond.





The 23-year-old, who claimed to be on a one-man double agent mission, was sentenced today at Woolwich Crown Court in London and ordered to pay ?10,000 towards prosecution costs.


Khalife was serving in the British Army when he exposed military personnel to serious harm by collecting sensitive information and passing it to agents of Iran. He was paid in cash for the secret information and told handlers he would stay in the military for 25-plus years for them.

In September 2023, Khalife escaped from category B prison HMP Wandsworth in South West London by clinging to the underside of a food delivery truck. He was caught on a canal towpath by a plainclothes detective days later.

Prosecutors in his trial said Khalife played a cynical game, claiming he wanted a career as a double agent to help the British intelligence services, when in fact he gathered a very large body of restricted and classified material.










The sling under the truck used in the prison escape of Daniel Khalife






In November, jurors at Woolwich Crown Court found that Khalife had breached the Official Secrets Act and the Terrorism Act. He was cleared of carrying out a bomb hoax and had already admitted during his trial to escaping from Wandsworth prison.


The judge told him: You passed information you had gathered to an enemy state, including when he was working in an international operation in America.





Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Khalife had been paid by Iran after sending communications via Telegram.


The judge said it was not surprising that Khalifes emails to MI6 offering to be a double agent failed because he had not informed MI6 or MI5 that he was in a sensitive military role when he contacted them.











Khalife in his hotel room in Istanbul



Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb added that Khalife had taken photographs of secret information including passwords and recorded details from the Falcon encrypted military communications system.


I am sure that you sent some of what you recorded about Falcon to your handlers, she told him.

The judge said Khalife had also obtained secret information about special forces soldiers adding: I am driven to the conclusion that the making of that list was also to send to the Iranians.

In addition, the judge said she could not be sure whether Khalifes fabricated intelligence file about British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sent to the Iranians, but it would have been detrimental to efforts to secure her release.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Khalife would have been a 'blackmail risk' had he continued to serve in the British Army.

She said the secret information he had compiled would have been highly valuable to a terrorist.

--------------




HISTORY

September 2018: Two weeks before his 17th birthday, Daniel Khalife joins the Army, completing his basic 23-week military training at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, finishing in February 2019.
March 2019: Khalife moves on to his 12-month specialist Phase 2 training at the Defence School of Communication and Information Systems at Blandford Forum in Dorset.
April 2019: Khalife creates a contact, visible on both of his iPhones, with a +98 number ? the dialling code for Iran. He later tells police he initially made contact with a well-known individual, connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ? Hamed Ghashghavi.
June 2019: An English-speaking handler is in contact with Khalife, with later examination of his phones showing he is in communication with an 'Ir' contact over Telegram.
August 2019: He is instructed to travel to London to pick up cash left by his handlers, with the intention that he should travel to Iran. Khalife collects ?1,500 left in a dog poo bag in Mill Hill Park in Barnet, north London.
March 2020: The signaller is posted to the 16th Signal Regiment in Stafford, a multi-role unit which delivers information and communication services to the armoured brigades' headquarters, among other responsibilities.
August 2020: Khalife travels to Istanbul in Turkey for six days to 'deliver a package' to Iranian intelligence. Messages show he offers a contact saved as 'David Smith' to stay in the Army for 25+ years, stealing information to order. He also gives a description of an internal military system which would identify service personnel.
February to April 2021: Khalife stays in contact with Iranian handlers while posted to Fort Hood in Texas. He takes a series of screenshots of systems marked 'Secret', including a password record sheet.
June 2021: Khalife uses information from an internal list of promotions to look up the full names of soldiers, including some in the special forces, on an HR system. He makes a handwritten list including their service number, rank, initials, surname and unit, including the SAS and SBS.
October 2021: Khalife is told by his Iranian contacts to travel to Kensal Green Cemetery in north-west London. Later that afternoon, he goes to the popular Portobello Road in Notting Hill. The reason, he later tells police, was to receive cash.
November 2021: Khalife makes two anonymous calls to MI5 from an unregistered mobile, having earlier tried to email MI6 using the 'Contact Us' page on the intelligence service's website. MI5 makes nine attempts to return his calls, but is not able to reach him.
January 2022: Khalife is arrested for allegedly gathering information for Iran.
January 2023: The signaller places a device on his desk and flees his barracks, having realised he is facing serious criminal charges. He leaves a note saying his options are taking his own life or absconding. A soldier who arrives in the room pulls wires out of the device to prove it is safe.











January 26, 2023: Khalife is found in the town of Stone, Staffordshire, not far from his barracks, having spent more than three weeks living in a stolen van.


May 2023: Khalife is officially discharged from the Army.
September 6, 2023: Khalife escapes from HMP Wandsworth in south-west London while on remand by strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery lorry. He visits Richmond and goes to Mountain Warehouse, Marks & Spencer and Sainsburys stores while on the run.
September 9, 2023: Three days after his escape, Khalife is arrested on a canal towpath in west London with a number of items including a mountain bike, a Waitrose bag containing a phone, receipts, a diary and about ?200 in cash.
October 8, 2024: Khalifes trial begins at Woolwich Crown Court.
November 28, 2024: After 23 hours and 10 minutes of deliberation, a jury convicts Khalife of spying for Iran. He is cleared of perpetrating a bomb hoax.
February 3, 2025: Khalife is sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court.'''











Judge Reads Out His FULL Details of SPYING For IRAN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MBzbr2dBt0