A SECURITY guard who threatened national security by stealing top military secrets from his workplace to sell to Russian agents was sentenced to 11 years in jail on Friday, last week (Feb 1).

Rafael Juan Bravo, 30, a night duty security guard at the British Aerospace Engineering site in Stanmore, was apprehended when the 'Russian' spies turned out to be British.

He was arrested at the White House Hotel in Albany Street, near Regents Park, during an undercover operation by MI5 and Special Branch police just hours after leaving work on August 22, 2001.

Bravo worked for Crusader Security, under contract to BAe Systems, where he pocketed six files containing confidential weapons information about war helicopters, jets, war ships and radars.

Commander Roger Pearce, director of Intelligence at the Metropolitan Police, said: "The sentence reflects the severity of this crime. This man abused his position of trust and his actions could have potentially put lives at risk."