Daniel Khalife: Former British soldier jailed for spying for Iran and prison escape from HMP Wandsworth

Khalife, 23, was convicted of gathering sensitive military information and passing it to Iranian agents while serving in the British Army. He was also found guilty of escaping from HMP Wandsworth in September 2023 by clinging to the underside of a food delivery truck.

At Woolwich Crown Court on Monday, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb described Khalife as “a dangerous fool” and said he had acted out of “a selfish desire to show off.”

The court heard that Khalife collected details on military personnel, including members of the Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS). He was paid in cash for the information and told his Iranian handlers he planned to stay in the military for over 25 years.

Some of the documents he attempted to pass off were forged, with his defence barrister, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, calling them “laughably fake.”

“What Daniel Khalife clearly chose to do was not born of malice, was not born of greed, religious fervour or ideological conviction,” Hussain told the court. “His intentions were neither sinister nor cynical.”

The judge said Khalife had started his contact with Iranian agents at just 17 years old, soon after joining the army. She said she had “no doubt” that he used his Iranian heritage to gain the trust of his handlers.

Khalife’s escape from HMP Wandsworth in September 2023 triggered a nationwide manhunt. He was captured days later on a canal towpath by a plainclothes detective.

Hussain compared his actions to “007 and Scooby-Doo” and argued that the escape had inadvertently exposed security weaknesses within the UK prison system that have since been addressed.

Sentencing him, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb ordered Khalife to pay £10,000 towards prosecution costs and forfeit items seized by police, including phones and notebooks.

She told him: “You embarked on the course of conduct I have described because of a selfish desire to show off, to achieve by unregulated means what you were told will be difficult for you to achieve by conventional promotion.

“The mere fact that you started on this dangerous and fantastical plan demonstrates your immaturity and lack of wisdom, that you thought it was appropriate to insert yourself – an unauthorised, unqualified and uninformed junior soldier – into communication with an enemy state is perhaps the clearest indication of the degree of folly in your failure to understand at the most obvious level the risk you posed.”

She added that had he not been caught, he would have remained a blackmail risk for his entire career. The court also heard that Khalife had reached out to MI5 and MI6 in an attempt to become a double agent but was ignored.

“The greater mischief in your offending is that, having failed to engage any response from the intelligence services of the United Kingdom, you continued betraying your country and exposed others to the possibility of harm,” the judge said.

Hussain said Khalife had been disappointed by his military career and sought to prove his usefulness through espionage. While he acknowledged that his client would serve a significant sentence, he said Khalife planned to use his time in prison productively.