A former has been described by a judge as a "dangerous fool" as he was sentenced for attempting to be a double agent.

“exposed military personnel to serious harm” by giving serving officers' names to Iranian agents for £1,500 in cash while he served as a soldier. He has now been sentenced to more than 14 years in , he was told by Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb: "You had the makings of an exemplary soldier, instead you were a dangerous fool."

Khalife was just 16 when he joined the army and was even named as "young soldier of the year". But a court heard he was frustrated after being told his Iranian heritage may stop him being recruited into military intelligence. He came up with an after watching the TV spy thriller Homeland.

Prosecutors told his trial he played “a cynical game”, claiming he wanted a career as a double agent to help the British Intelligence Services, when in fact he gathered “a very large body of restricted and classified material”.

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He gathered documents and photographs including a handwritten list of names of personnel including some who served in the Special Air Service and Special Boat Service. He was paid in cash for the material, some of which he forged, and told handlers he would stay in the military for 25-plus years for them.

In September 2023, Khalife escaped from category B prison HMP Wandsworth, in south-west London, by clinging to the underside of a food delivery truck. He was caught on a canal towpath by a plain clothes detective days later after a nationwide manhunt was launched.

The judge added: “You embarked on the course of conduct I have described because of a selfish desire to show off, to achieve by unregulated means what you were told will be difficult for you to achieve by conventional promotion. The mere fact that you started on this dangerous and fantastical plan demonstrates your immaturity and lack of wisdom, that you thought it was appropriate to insert yourself – an unauthorised, unqualified and uninformed junior soldier into communication with an enemy state is perhaps the clearest indication of the degree of folly in your failure to understand at the most obvious level the risk you posed.”

In mitigation, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC said Khalife’s actions were more “Scooby Doo” than “007”. He told the judge: “What Daniel Khalife clearly chose to do was not born of malice, was not born of greed, religious fervour or ideological conviction. His intentions were neither sinister nor cynical.”

Some of the documents he had forged to pass to the Iranians were “laughably fake”, Mr Hussain told the court. “We say it was offending that was born of professional disappointment, a desire to demonstrate genuine utility and that led him to a grossly naive, rose-tinted view of patriotism."

Mr Hussain added that Khalife’s gathering of a list of soldiers’ names to pass to Iran had led to positive changes being made to internal Army systems that mean servicemen and women are now better protected. His escape from prison had also highlighted failings within the prison system that are now being addressed, the court was told.

Five days before his successful escape, he attached a sling to the underside of a lorry made from kitchen trousers and carabiners. While on the run, Khalife bought clothes from and a coffee from McDonald’s, and walked beside the River Thames. He made one last attempt to contact the Iranians before he was caught, sending a Telegram message which said simply: “I wait.”

On Monday he was sentenced to 14 years and three months in prison for breaching the Terrorism Act, the Official Secrets Act and for escaping from HMP Wandsworth.