Richard Tomlinson

Richard Tomlinson

Richard John Charles Tomlinson (born 13 January 1963) is a New Zealand-born British former MI6 officer. After what he perceived to be an unfair dismissal from the Secret Intelligence Service, he attempted to take MI6 to an employment tribunal. MI6 refused, argued that this would breach security.

Tomlinson was imprisoned in 1997 for violating the Official Secrets Act 1989 by giving the synopsis of a proposed book detailing his career in the Service to an Australian publisher. He served five months of a twelve month sentence before being given parole, whereupon he fled the country, breaching his sentencing conditions. The book, named The Big Breach, was published in Moscow in 2001 (and later in Edinburgh), and was subsequently serialised by The Sunday Times.

Later, Tomlinson attempted to aid Mohamed al-Fayed in his privately funded investigation into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Tomlinson claimed that MI6 had considered murdering Slobodan Milosevic, the president of Serbia, by staging a car crash using a powerful strobe light to blind the driver. He suggested that Diana and Dodi may have been killed by MI6 in the same way, although that claim was dismissed at their inquest in 2007.

In 2009 MI6 agreed to allow Tomlinson to return to Britain, unfreeze royalties from his book and drop the threat of charges. MI6 also apologised for its unfair treatment of him. Since 2000, staff at MI6 are now allowed employment tribunals, and have been able to unionise since 2008.