Bettaney was posted to
Belfast in June 1976 and was injured in a car bomb attack. Two years later he returned to London and participated in the newly created anti-terrorist branch. He took a large number of secret documents home with him from the office, before trying to hand over highlights to the KGB's London
rezident (Head of KGB Station or
rezidentura), General Arkady V. Guk, by dropping the documentation through the letterbox of Guk's house, Bettaney knowing the address via his work. Bettaney did not know that another member of the Station,
KGB [Acting] Colonel
Oleg Gordievsky, was an
MI6 agent. Gordievsky informed MI6 and the British authorities managed to identify and arrest Bettaney Although Bettaney subsequently claimed to have been inspired by political motives, an alternative theory of his motivation is alleged to arise from the following: he had received a final warning following a criminal conviction for fare-dodging and an arrest for being drunk in the street. A further offence of using an out-of-date railway season ticket followed, and although Bettaney had failed to declare it, as he was required to do, he knew it would be disclosed during his next routine security screening, which would inevitably lead to his dismissal. The management of Bettaney while working for MI5 was examined by the
Security Commission, who concluded that "[t]he Commission make a number of serious criticisms of the errors by the Security Service in relation to the management of Bettaney's career..." == Aftermath ==