A Border Force official has been found guilty of assisting a foreign state and misconduct in public office for conducting illegal surveillance to help China.
Chi Leung Wai, aged 40, also known as Peter Wai, was yesterday convicted by a jury at the Old Bailey alongside former Hong Kong police officer Chung Biu Yuen, aged 65. Yuen, also known as Billy Yuen, was employed at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London.
Jurors heard evidence that the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, which is the official overseas representative of the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, was used as a base through which Wai and Yuen’s operations were funded.
They were told that the men researched dissidents living in the UK, including exact addresses, what cars they drive and details of their social media accounts. Those dissidents were referred to as “cockroaches”.
The Hong Kong authorities also put bounties of up to £100,000 for information on pro-democracy campaigners that led to their whereabouts being identified or to their capture.
Wai, of Staines, in Surrey, and Yuen, of Hackney, in London, were convicted of assisting a foreign intelligence service under the National Security Act 2023.
In addition to working for Border Force as an immigration officer, Wai was also a special constable with City of London Police. Old Bailey jurors convicted him on a charge of misconduct in public office for using Home Office computer systems to gain personal data for improper purposes.
The Crown Prosecution Service said digital evidence showed that he carried out database searches while off duty and shared sensitive information obtained through his public role.
Wai and Yuen were arrested and charged following an incident in which a flat in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, was broken into in May 2024. It belonged to a woman who moved to the UK from Hong Kong in 2023.
Another man, a Border Force officer named Matthew Trickett, who was a friend of Wai’s, was also arrested as part of the counter-terror investigations at the time. He was charged alongside Wai and Yuen but was subsequently found dead in a park in Maidenhead days after the three first appeared in court.
The Home Office said Wai was immediately suspended from his duties following his arrest and subsequently dismissed from his job.
The Metropolitan Police said that while Wai had claimed his surveillance activities were legitimate private-security work, evidence from Trickett’s phone showed a “clear awareness” of the significance of the people being targeted and links back to the Hong Kong authorities.
The force said that messages on Trickett’s phone also showed that Yuen was making payments to the pair – despite Yuen claiming that he was not involved in what they were doing.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said Wai and Yuen had infringed UK sovereignty with their activities on behalf of China.
“We will continue to hold China to account and challenge them directly for actions which put the safety of people in our country at risk,” he said. “That is why the Foreign Office will summon the Chinese ambassador to make it clear activity like this was, and will always be, unacceptable on UK soil.”
Bethan David, head of the counter-terrorism division at the CPS, said Wai and Yuen’s actions had been “deliberate” and “coordinated” – and carried out with full knowledge of who it would benefit.
“These convictions send a clear message that transnational repression, foreign interference, unauthorised surveillance, and attempts to operate outside the law will not be tolerated on British soil,” she said.
“The CPS will not hesitate to prosecute cases where evidence shows illegal attempts to interfere, intimidate, or operate covertly in the United Kingdom. We will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to make sure that those who abuse positions of trust or act on behalf of foreign interests are held properly to account.”
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of counter-terrorism policing in London, described Wai and Yuen’s activities as “both sinister and chilling”.
“This investigation was incredibly complex, with over 20 terabytes of data to trawl through, including thousands of messages and information in multiple languages,” she said. “But despite significant challenges, we were able to show how Yuen and Wai were working with each other and that they were clearly aware this was for the benefit of the Hong Kong authorities to spy on pro-democracy campaigners here in the UK.”
Wai and Yuen will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on a date to be fixed.