A FORMER soldier who spied for Iran before escaping from Wandsworth prison under a food van has been jailed. Daniel Khalife cost police more than £250,000 in overtime in a mammoth manhunt involving 150 officers when he fled jail. The 23-year-old had been held on remand for spying charges after he contacted Iranian security service members within just one month of joining the Royal Corps of Signals.

Former soldier Khalife used fake email addresses for the espionage and sent details about SAS and SBS personnel to his handlers. The "attention seeker" has now been jailed for 14 years and three months after being convicted of spying for Iran and escaping from Wandsworth. Sentencing, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Khalife had been motivated by "a selfish desire to show off" and described him as "a dangerous fool".

Khalife left material in public locations in exchange for cash in an old-fashioned spy tactic known as the "dead drop". His first payment of £1,500 was left in a dog poo bag for him to collect in August 2019. Khalife also made a second £1,000 cash pick-up from Kensal Green Cemetery in October 2021. While being held on remand at HMP Wandsworth for his crimes, Khalife used bed sheets to strap himself to the underside of a food delivery truck.

Footage showed him leaving his cell on September 6 last year as he pulled a catering trolley for his kitchen duty shift. A white Mercedes sprinter van was then seen parked outside the Category B prison in South West London. As it pulls away, Khalife was left holding on to the underside using the makeshift sling. He then "pencil rolled" away from the lorry before heading on a shopping spree across London, Woolwich Crown Court was told.

A huge nationwide hunt was launched amid fears Khalife had fled to Iran. Khalife was eventually arrested four days after he fled prison on the footpath of the Grand Union Canal in Northolt, West London. In this time, he had picked up a baseball cap from a Mountain Warehouse and was captured strolling leisurely through Richmond. The soldier managed to change his wardrobe multiple times while on the loose and even brazenly purchased a newspaper that had a front page story about his escape.

During a police interview, the former soldier said he "f***ed up" his body underneath the truck. He also said he did not realise how "unbelievably dangerous" it was until the vehicle turned on to a main road where the speed limit increased. Asked why he had allegedly escaped, Khalife replied: "Can't tell you. "There's a reason why I was so calm when the officer arrested me. "I could have jumped in the water, I could have f***ed him up.

"Everything's gone to plan.". The former squaddie, who was brought up in Kingston, South West London, by his Iranian mum, joined the Army in September 2018 - two weeks before his 17th birthday. But prosecutor Mark Heywood KC said he had "no real intention to simply get his head down" and instead his motives moved towards espionage. In April 2019, Khalife first made contact with Iran - just weeks after he passed his security clearance.

Messages showed by August 2020, he was willing to gather information "to order, for as long as they wanted" while posted with the 16th Signal Regiment in Stafford. He told a contact saved as David Smith: "I need to go to your supervisor and ask what specific regiment or sector you're interested in.". That same month, he travelled to Istanbul on instructions from David Smith, who told him to disguise the trip as a holiday.

Khalife used Telegram to indicate he had left a package for his handlers, the court heard. Mr Heywood said Khalife's plan was to go from Turkey to Iran but he did not cross the border. He was posted to Fort Hood in Texas between February and April 2021 and stayed in contact with his Iranian handlers. The court heard he took a series of screenshots of systems marked "Secret" - including a password record sheet.

In April that year, Khalife was granted the second highest level of Nato security, one below "cosmic top secret". Just two months later, he took a photo of a handwritten list of 15 soldiers - including some serving in the Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS). At one point, Khalife contacted MI6 saying he wanted to be a "double agent" and later told police his contact with the Iranians was all a double bluff, the court was told.

By Mike Sullivan, Crime Editor. In a rare moment of self-awareness, Daniel Khalife admitted in court he had behaved like an idiot. Unfortunately, he proved to be a useful idiot for Iran and an embarrassment to British intelligence, police, the Army and particularly the prison service. Khalife maintained that while he had offered to spy for Iran, in reality he was acting from misguided patriotism and wanted to be a double agent.