A man accused of trying to spy for Russia ‘would dream about being like James Bond’ and once wrote to Arsenal saying he wanted to be the football club’s manager despite having ‘no qualifications’, his ex-wife has told a court.
Howard Phillips, 65, from Harlow in Essex, is on trial at Winchester Crown Court charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service under the National Security Act.
It is alleged Phillips intended to assist people he believed to be Russian agents called ‘Sasha’ and ‘Dima’ – offering to pass on personal information about former defence secretary Sir Grant Shapps, help with travel logistics and booking hotels.
Giving evidence on Wednesday, Phillips’ former wife Amanda Phillips told the court her ex-husband was a ‘kind, caring man, a good friend, a good dad’.
‘Not a great husband,’ she told jurors.
‘But he has got a good soul. He is also a daydreamer, big time, pipe dreams, big time.’
Mrs Phillips, who has three children with Phillips, said: ‘For example, he wrote to Arsenal and England football clubs saying that he wanted to be their manager.
‘He has no qualifications, no experience, it was like off the wall.’
She said she had seen a response letter from Arsenal saying they did not require Phillips’ services.
Asked by Jeremy Dein KC, defending, how she reacted, she said: ‘I just laughed. I thought, I just can’t take this seriously.’
Mrs Phillips told jurors her ex-husband also wanted to be an actor but had ‘no qualifications, no experience’.
‘He read a lot about James Bond, watched films to do with MI5, MI6, and he was infatuated with it,’ Mrs Phillips said.
‘I think he would dream about serving this country in some way and being like James Bond, you know that was quite normal… he had unrealistic behaviour traits, you know they were not real to me, they were OTT. Over the top dreams, thoughts.’
She claimed Phillips was ‘totally rejected’ by his father, who was Phillips’ sole caregiver after his mother died when he was around 14.
Mrs Phillips told jurors the defendant ‘loved James Bond, he loved the image, you know, the suit, the nice car’.
‘James Bond was someone you could respect, you know, that people liked, someone special,’ she told the court.
The couple met in Golders Green, north London, and were married for more than 18 years, the court heard, from around 1997.
She said that after they split she saw Phillips less but he still came to her house around once a week to see their children.
Mrs Phillips told the court she was aware her ex-husband had applied for a job at the UK Border Force in October 2023, which prosecutors allege was part of his bid to assist Russia’s intelligence service.
Phillips, who is of Jewish faith, previously claimed he had contacted the Russian embassy in early 2024 in a bid to track and expose Russian agents to assist Israel.
His ex-wife told jurors she had been to Israel with Phillips, and said: ‘He loves Israel, loves the land, you know its the Jewish homeland, he felt very comfortable there, just as I do.’
Asked what Phillips’ attitude is to the UK, his ex-wife said ‘he loves this country, really does, always has done’, adding that he loves pubs, pints and fish and chips.
‘He loves this country, he loves the culture, loves the people,’ she said.
‘He would defend this country in any way.’
She added that he would ‘never, ever betray this country’.
Body-worn footage shows Phillips, 65, in handcuffs as he is walked towards the entrance of a coffee shop in London by plain-clothed officers and told of his arrest.
Just moments before, he met an undercover British officer – who he believed was a Russian agent – and allegedly handed over a USB stick containing the personal details of Tory politician Shapps.
This included his home address, telephone number, and the location of his private plane, jurors have been told.
The Briton, from Harlow, Essex, is on trial, accused of trying to spy for the Kremlin.
Prosecutors said Phillips wanted to ‘offer services’ to Russian intelligence but the two handlers he corresponded with were British undercover security services agents.
Released by the Met Police, the new video shows the moment he was arrested at a Black Sheep Coffee shop in London.
In the clip, he spoke only to confirm that he understood why he was being arrested.
At Winchester Crown Court, Hampshire , Phillips denies engaging in conduct to assist a foreign intelligence service.
Prosecutors say Phillips had previously boasted he could get government clearance due to his new job at Border Force.
He said he wanted the ‘agents’ and him to be a ‘family’ – and said they could all ‘help each other’ and ‘look after each other’.
He claimed to have been to Shapps’ home and had met up with him several times.
One of the intelligence officers, who is employed by the security service, gave evidence from behind a curtain at Winchester Crown Court on Thursday.
The British officer was known to Phillips as ‘Dima’ and spoke to him in recordings with a fake Russian accent.
On May 9, Phillips met with ‘Dima’ at a Costa Coffee in a retail park in West Thurrock, Essex.
It was here that he revealed the ‘useful’ information he had been holding related to Shapps.
Phillips told the officer: ‘So I know his home address, I know his home telephone number and I know where he has his private plane. Maybe it’s of interest, maybe not.’
On May 16, he checked into a Hilton Hotel in London at the request of the fake agents, who told him it was for a senior officer of their ‘organisation’, the Russian Intelligence Service.
He met with Dima just after 3pm and handed over a bag containing the card, a mobile phone, and the USB stick.
Phillips was told to go to Black Sheep Coffee on King’s Cross Square, London, to meet the senior RIS officer.
Upon arriving at around 3:45pm, he was arrested by plain clothed officers.
Shapps served as Secretary of State for Defence during the Ukraine and Russia war, and would have held negotiations with Volodymyr Zelensky. He was defeated in last year’s general election and lost his seat.
The trial continues.
