A spy who infiltrated a direct action anti-aviation group was been exposed after making a series of such elementary errors that he made the spies Abwehr sent to Ireland in WWII look like James Bond...

Toby Kendall joined Plane Stupid, the group that occupied the roof of the Houses of Parliament last month, after graduating from Oxford last year. He told the activists that his name was “Ken Tobias” and said that he was deeply concerned by the impact of the aviation industry on climate change and that he wanted to help to organise protests. But his habit of wearing a Palestinian scarf with his Armani jeans and designer shirt made some members question his identity. He was also the only member to turn up early to every meeting but had no friends in the activist community. He took part in protests, dressing as a penguin in one stunt, but always tried to remain in the background.

Plane Stupid began a mole hunt and, after feeding him false information that found its way within two days to the aviation industry, discovered his real name and employer. Mr Kendall, 24, works for C2i International (or is that worked), a counter-intelligence company run by former special forces officers. It claims that its agents are “hand-picked from Special Operations at New Scotland Yard”. Its website puts “aerospace” at the top of a list of industries for which it works.

BAA, which owns Heathrow, has repeatedly been targeted by Plane Stupid but stated “...we do not have a relationship with C2i or the individual in question.”

Justin King, C2i’s managing director, claimed to have been unaware of Mr Kendall’s infiltration of Plane Stupid. He said Mr Kendall was employed to carry out counter-surveillance such as “debugging company offices”. He added: “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?” 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.”

A spokesman for the Plane Stupid said: “This special agent was more Austin Powers than James Bond, though the question still remains, who paid for the spy?”