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STORY: Fifty-eight-year-old David Ballantyne Smith passed highly sensitive information to the Russian state while working as a security guard at the British embassy in Berlin.

Seen here using his phone to film images from the CCTV monitors in a security kiosk, Smith collected confidential information for more than three years, including government communications with then Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other sensitive documents.

On Friday (February 17) he was jailed for 13 years and two months in a London court by Judge Mark Wall, who said Smith was motivated by his anti-British and pro-Russian views.

"I am sure that at some stage in 2020, you established regular contact with someone at the Russian embassy and that this contact was a conduit through which material illegally obtained by you was passed on."

"You were paid by Russia for your treachery."

Wall said the charges for which Smith was sentenced involved conduct between 2020 and 2021, but that his "subversive activities had begun two years before."

Smith accepted sending two letters containing sensitive information to individuals at the Russian embassy in Berlin.

He pleaded guilty in November to eight offenses under the Official Secrets Act.

Earlier this week, Smith told the court he was ashamed of what he had done and said he had filmed the documents after drinking "seven pints of beer."