Three people guilty of spying for Russia from seaside guesthouse
Two women and a man have been found guilty of spying for Russia in a huge espionage operation from a guesthouse in Great Yarmouth.
Katrin Ivanova, 33, a lab assistant from Harrow, north London, Vanya Gaberova, 30, a beautician from Acton, west London, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, a painter and decorator from Enfield, north London, have all been convicted of spying for Russia.
Vanya Gaberova. Pic: Gardham/MPS
Katrin Ivanova. Pic: Gardham/MPS
The women were both involved in relationships with Bizer Dzhambazov, 43, a medical courier who ran the ground operations of the spy ring.
The spy ring was run by Orlin Roussev, 46, a former City worker who set up a freelance espionage operation from a 33-room guesthouse in Great Yarmouth.
Vanya Gaberova and Bizer Dzhambazov in Montenegro in December 2021. Pic: Gardham/MPS
Biser Dzhambazov (left) Orlin Roussev (right). Both have admitted spying charges. Pic: Met Police
The spy ring’s contact in Moscow was an Austrian man called Jan Marsalek, 44, the former chief operating officer of a major finance and tech company called Wirecard which collapsed in 2020 amid allegations of a £1.6bn fraud.
All are Bulgarian nationals with EU-settled status after living in the UK for a number of years.
Tihomir Ivanchev. Pic: Gardham/MPS
‘Jackie Chan’ and ‘Mad Max’ messages on spy ring
Roussev and Dzhambazov both pleaded guilty to espionage charges but the three others denied the charges. Wanted by the German authorities, Marsalek fled to Russia, where he allegedly ran the network.
The spy ring – which operated globally between August 2020 and February 2023 – was revealed in more than 80,000 messages recovered from Roussev and Dzhambazov on the encrypted Telegram messaging app, following their arrest in February 2023.
The pair adopted the names of martial arts film stars – Roussev was “Jackie Chan” and Dzhambazov was “Jean Claude Van Damme” or “Max Max”.
The cell was said to have used “sophisticated methodology” which included advanced technology and false identities in order to acquire information and imagery, before compiling detailed reports on their targets to send to Moscow.
One of the tasks of the spy ring was to gather information about dissidents and prominent individuals of interest to the Russians.
Electronics and spying equipment seized from the Great Yarmouth guesthouse. Pic: Duncan Gardham/MPS
Spying target ‘seriously hated’ by Vladimir Putin
Their targets included Christo Grozev, a journalist who worked for the British investigative website Bellingcat and was responsible for identifying the GRU agents accused of poisoning MI6 double agent Sergei Skripal with Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury in March 2018.
Marsalek said Vladimir Putin “seriously hated” Grozev and contemplated killing him with a sledgehammer.
The spy ring conducted surveillance in Knightsbridge and Kensington in London and even considered using a drone to spray pigs’ blood over the Kazakhstan Embassy as part of a fake protest.
One operation that went ahead involved placing stickers around Vienna and Berlin to discredit Ukraine, including far right messages on a Jewish museum.
Alison Morgan KC, prosecuting, said: “By gathering the information and passing it on to the Russian state, the defendants were, make no mistake, putting many lives at risk.”
Matthew Collins, the UK deputy national security adviser, told the trial the Russians were seeking to “outsource” their covert operations in order to regain a foothold in Britain after the expulsion of spies following the poisoning of Sergei Skripal.
In one message Marsalek told Roussev: “A successful operation on British ground would be amazing after the f*** up Skripal stuff.”
The Haydee Guesthouse in Great Yarmouth was the spy ring’s base. Pic: Gardham/MPS
£220,000 ‘Indiana Jones warehouse’
Roussev’s partner paid £220,000 for the Haydee Guesthouse in Prince’s Road, close to the seafront in Great Yarmouth.
He said he was “becoming Q”, the character from James Bond, and called the guesthouse his “Indiana Jones warehouse.”
When police raided the hotel as part of an operation, codenamed Skirp, they found it packed with technical equipment including 495 SIM cards, 221 mobile phones, 258 hard drives, 55 visual recording devices, 33 audio devices, 16 radios and 11 drones.
Police spent eight days combing through the property, which was packed to the ceiling with electronic surveillance equipment, including a £120,000 “law enforcement grade” IMSI grabber.
An IMSI grabber, which can capture mobile phone numbers from a nearby area. Pic: Duncan Gardham/MPS
Much of it was “wearable technology” for recording video and audio such as wristwatches, pens, ties, sunglasses, cigarette lighter, car key fob and jewellery.
There were 91 bank cards in the names of 17 individuals and 75 passports and identity documents in 55 individuals’ names.
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of Scotland Yard’s SO15, which deals with state threats, said it was one the largest spying investigations in the last 20 years.
“This was spying on an almost industrial scale on behalf of the Russian intelligence services and lots of their activity goes to the very heart of the freedoms and national security that we need to try and protect here in the UK,” he said.
Fans will see a series of changes to Ticketmaster sales practices after an investigation into Oasis concert prices.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has secured a number of commitments from Ticketmaster after its investigation found it did not offer fans enough clarity on pricing.
Money latest: Ticketmaster forced to change sales process
It identified that Ticketmaster did not tell Oasis fans waiting in lengthy queues that standing tickets were being sold at two different prices – and that prices would jump as soon as the cheap tickets sold out.
It also said Ticketmaster sold some “platinum” tickets at almost 2.5 times the price of ‘standard’ tickets – without sufficiently explaining that they offered no additional benefits over some ‘standard’ tickets in the same areas of the venue.
Ticketmaster will now be required to:
- Tell fans 24 hours in advance if a tiered pricing system is being used. This means fans will know beforehand if there are multiple prices for the same type of ticket, and that more expensive ones will be released once the cheapest sell out;
- Provide more information about ticket prices during online queues, helping fans anticipate how much they might have to pay;
- Give additional information to help fans make the best decisions, and give more information about the prices of tickets sold using tiered pricing;
- Not use any misleading ticket labels, giving the impression that one ticket is better than another when that is not the case;
- Provide regular reports to the CMA on how it has implemented the changes over the next two years to ensure robust compliance.
Failure to implement these measures could result in enforcement action.
Separate to the CMA report, Ticketmaster have now also stopped using “platinum” labels in the UK.
The CMA said it hopes the measures will send a “clear message” to other ticketing websites, adding: “If Ticketmaster fails to deliver on these changes, we won’t hesitate to take further action.”
“Fans who spend their hard-earned money to see artists they love deserve to see clear, accurate information, upfront,” said CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell.
“We can’t ensure every fan gets a ticket for events as popular as the Oasis tour, but we can help ensure that next time an event like this comes along, fans have the information they need, when they need it.”
Responding to the findings, Ticketmaster said: “We welcome the CMA’s confirmation there was no dynamic pricing, no unfair practices and that we did not breach consumer law.
“To further improve the customer experience, we’ve voluntarily committed to clearer communication about ticket prices in queues. This builds on our capped resale, strong bot protection, and clear pricing displays, and we encourage the CMA to hold the entire industry to these same standards.”
The watchdog launched its investigation following widespread complaints about the sale that saw over 900,000 tickets purchased through the site.
Some ended up paying as much as £355 for tickets originally advertised for £148.
Pic: PA
The CMA had made it clear, in an update in March, that it was seeking a series of remedies that were yet to be agreed.
It explained then that Ticketmaster labelled certain seated tickets as “platinum” and sold them for nearly two-and-a-half times the price of equivalent standard tickets, without explaining why they were more expensive.
It found that it “risked giving consumers the misleading impression that platinum tickets were better”.
The regulator also concluded that Ticketmaster did not inform fans that there were two categories of standing tickets at different prices, but it said there was no evidence that dynamic pricing – a form of surge pricing where costs can rise depending on levels of demand – was used.
The UK leg of the Oasis tour will end at Wembley Stadium this coming weekend.
A major test of the CMA’s agreement with Ticketmaster could come soon, however, as it is widely believed that Oasis plan to return to Knebworth House in Hertfordshire next year for a gig to mark the 30th anniversary of their celebrated 1996 concert.
A US vaccine firm has opened the first mRNA manufacturing plant in the UK, against a backdrop of increasing anti-jab rhetoric back home.
The new facility outside Oxford is part of a £1bn investment in the UK by Moderna, which specialises in mRNA.
The novel vaccine technology delivered some of the most effective and fastest-to-develop jabs during the COVID pandemic.
Several pharma companies, including Germany’s leading mRNA pioneer BioNTech, are now racing to develop new therapies.
Moderna says the plant will produce up to 100 million doses of its existing vaccine products each year. It has also been designed to scale-up production to 250 million doses a year in the event of a new disease outbreak.
“God-forbid, if there is another pandemic, we can switch the facility any day,” said Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel.
The UK investment deal was agreed by the previous government, but the plant’s opening is welcome relief for the current one.
In recent weeks, four major pharmaceutical companies have halted planned investments in the UK following disputes over drug pricing and profitability in the UK.
‘A great statement’
It also promises to restore domestic vaccine manufacturing capability in the UK, the lack of which was exposed when dangerous supply interruptions threatened the early COVID response.
“It’s a really fast way of getting new vaccines discovered,” said Lord Patrick Vallance, former chief scientist and now science minister.
“It’s also a great statement of confidence in the UK that [Moderna has] chosen to base themselves here.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting attended the opening
Moderna: UK ‘still believes’ in vaccines
The mRNA molecule is the same used by our cells to order the production of new proteins, and allows vaccines to be produced using just the genetic code of a virus or other biological target.
Moderna’s investment decision pre-dated Donald Trump’s return to the White House, but the Moderna CEO said its operation in the UK – a country that “still believes in vaccination” – may pay dividends if anti-vaccine rhetoric translates into a lack of demand for its products in the US.
“If there is less appetite by governments around the world, including in the US, to use vaccines, we might invest less in vaccines,” said Mr Bancel.
“We have to invest where there’s a demand for our products.”
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The UK presents other attractions for the company which has suffered substantial losses as demand for its COVID vaccine has fallen.
It’s betting that leading UK universities and a large patient population will make for successful clinical trials.
The company has ongoing NHS trials of new jabs against seasonal flu, a combination COVID and flu vaccine, cancer vaccines and mRNA therapies for two inherited childhood diseases.
Moderna says it is now the largest private commercial sponsor of clinical trials in the UK.
Footballer Wayne Rooney has said he believes he would be dead if it wasn’t for his wife Coleen’s help with his alcohol issues.
The former England and Manchester United star told his friend and former teammate Rio Ferdinand he would “drink for two days straight” at the peak of his career.
Recalling that period on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast, he said he would “come training and at the weekend I’d score two goals and then I’d go back and go and drink for two days straight again”.
But the 39-year-old said his wife “helped me control that massively” and “managed me because I needed managing”.
“I honestly believe, if she weren’t there, I’d be dead,” he said.
Speaking to Ferdinand, he recalled meeting Coleen when they were at secondary school together in Liverpool and getting married in 2008 after six years of dating.
The couple in Germany during the 2006 World Cup. Pic: PA
“When I was 17, she could see, she knew my mind and she knew I was a bit out there,” he said.
“I loved my football, obsessed with football, but also I loved a night out or whatever, going out. She’s seen it very early on and she’s controlled that. Well, not controlled, but helped me control that massively.”
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The couple in Liverpool in 2006. Pic: PA
Gum and eye drops to hide drinking at work
When he was playing for Manchester United, he would try to hide his drinking sessions from manager Sir Alex Ferguson by chewing gum and using eye drops, he added.
The couple have four children together. Their marriage has been impacted by several allegations of Rooney being unfaithful, for which he has issued public apologies.
The former striker, who is still Manchester United’s all-time record goal scorer, was arrested for drink-driving in 2017.
After he was caught over the limit in Wilmslow, Cheshire, he pleaded guilty to drink-driving and was banned for two years, made to do 100 hours of unpaid work, and was fined two weeks’ wages by his then-team Everton.
He was arrested for “public intoxication” in the US a year later and fined $116 (£86) without going to court.
Having left his role as head coach at Plymouth Argyle, Rooney now has his own BBC podcast and works as a pundit on Match Of The Day.
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