Bumbling 'spy' caught out by protest group
A bumbling spy who infiltrated an anti-aviation group has been exposed after making a series of elementary errors.
Toby Kendall was dubbed "more Austin Powers than James Bond" by Plane Stupid, the direct action protest group that demonstrated on the roof of the Houses of Parliament last month
Kendall joined the group under the alias Ken Tobias and told the activists he was concerned by the impact of the aviation industry on climate change.
He offered to help to organise protests but group members soon began to question the 24 year-old Oxford graduate's behaviour.
His habit of wearing a Palestinian scarf with designer clothes aroused their suspicions. A member wrote on the group's blog: "From the beginning, your red Palestinian scarf and baseball cap was doing little to cover up an all-year tan."
They also questioned his lack of associates in the activist community and were suspicious of his "relentless hunger to hear about the hardcore action".
Although Kendall took part in protests, and even dressed up as a penguin for one particular stunt, he is said to have always remained in the background.
Plane Stupid began a mole hunt and discovered that Kendall was working for C2i, a counter intelligence firm. They fed him false information which Kendall allegedly fed back to his employer.
C2i International is run by former special forces officers and claims its agents are "hand-picked from Special Operations at New Scotland Yard". But a spokesman for Plane Stupid said Kendall was "more Austin Powers than James Bond."
Justin King, C2i's managing director said he was unaware of Mr Kendall's infiltration of Plane Stupid and that Kendall was employed to carry out counter-surveillance such as "debugging company offices".
He said: "The security industry is full of people on the circuit who masquerade as this and that. When they are not working for us how can we stop them from working for other people?"
When asked how he felt about one of his team infiltrating a protest group he said: "I'm not particularly happy about it. We will have to look into it."