Informer 'wined and dined'

AN MI5 agent told a court how he obtained intelligence on British exports to Saddam Hussein's Iraqi arms industry in the late 1980s.

The Old Bailey was told that the MI5 officer wined and dined Mark Gutteridge, a sales executive with the Coventry machine tool manufacturer Matrix Churchill and told him one of his reports 'was going to be seen by the Prime Minister'. Mr Gutteridge was not paid.

On trial are Paul Henderson, 52, the managing director of Matrix Churchill, from Coventry, Trevor Abraham, 45, of Balsall Common, West Midlands, the former commercial manager, and Peter Allan, 46, of Leicester, the former sales director. They deny four charges of being knowingly concerned in the export or attempted export of prohibited goods between July 1988 and August 1990.

The trial continues on Monday.