LONDON

A man in the UK has been jailed for seven years for assisting a foreign intelligence service after handing over personal details of a British defense secretary to two undercover officers he believed to be Russian agents, according to media reports Friday.

Howard Phillips, 66, was convicted in July after jurors heard he had been seeking "easy money" when he offered his services to the undercover officers, known as Dima and Sasha.

He handed a USB stick containing details relating to Grant Shapps, including his home address and the location of his private plane, to one of the officers, the trial heard.

He told the jury he was Jewish and met Shapps at a synagogue as his local MP in the constituency of Welwyn Hatfield, The Guardian reported.

Shapps served as the defense secretary from August 2023 to July 2024 under Rishi Sunak's Conservative government.

"You were prepared to betray your country for money. I sentence you on the basis you are not ideologically driven but motivated by money." Judge Cheema-Grubb said as he sentenced him at the Winchester Crown Court,

Phillips was arrested in May 2024 and charged under the National Security Act​​​​​​​.