Police are investigating the sale of a digital camera containing MI6 images of terror suspects on eBay, the Foreign Office has confirmed.
A 28-year-old man from Hertfordshire bought the Nixon Cool Pix camera for Р€17 on the online auction website before going on holiday to the US.
When the new owner, a delivery driver from Hemel Hempstead, went to download his holiday pictures he found photos of terror suspects, along with their names, fingerprints and images of launchers and missiles.
According to reports in the Sun this morning, a document marked "top secret" which gave details of the encrypted computer system used by MI6's agents was also found among the images. Some of the material found on the camera was said to relate to Abdul al-Hadi al-Iraqi, 46, an al-Qaida officer, who was captured by the CIA in 2007.
The man walked into Hemel Hempstead Police Station to report the matter, but cops initially treated it as a joke. Yet within days Special Branch, the team of specialist anti-terror officers based in every county force, descended on his humble terraced home. They took away the camera and the family’s PC and spent Р€1,000 replacing them. Officers banned the shocked family from talking to the media.
Hertfordshire police said today that the sale was being investigated. "We can confirm we seized a camera after a member of the public reported it," a statement said. "Intelligence officers are investigating."
