British naval officer’s laptop is third to go missing

Sunday, May 21, 2000 | 1:42 a.m.

A laptop containing training information for MI6, the spy agency responsible for foreign intelligence, was mislaid by an intelligence officer in early March and recovered by police two weeks later.

The same month, a second laptop with classified material on Northern Ireland was snatched from a MI5 security service officer at London's Paddington Station when the officer put it down to buy a train ticket. It has not been found.

In the latest incident, a naval officer lost his computer and his personal luggage after boarding a train at Paddington station in early May, a spokesman for the ministry of defense confirmed.

The computer, worth about $3,000, did not contain classified information, the spokesman said.

But a report in The Sunday Times said the computer held specifications for the next generation of fighter aircraft and details of how they can be controlled from the ground.

The newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, said a thief trailed the military officer into the station before snatching the computer. The thief sold the computer to a dealer, who in turn tried to sell the contents for $23,000 to a newspaper, The Times said.

The third laptop has not been recovered, the ministry said.