Daniel De Simone
Reporting from the Old Bailey

The judge, Mr Justice Hilliard, is limited in the sentences he can pass because the defendants were prosecuted as part of a spying conspiracy. The maximum sentence is therefore 14 years.

In considering sentences for each defendant, the judge will consider their individual roles in the overall conspiracy, and where they fit into the hierarchy of the cell.

The case was prosecuted with Orlin Roussev as the cell leader in the UK, with Biser Dhzambazov as his deputy

Because they both pleaded guilty, they will expect to receive some discount in their sentences. Ivan Stoyanov also pleaded guilty.

But all three pleaded guilty close to trial and therefore won’t receive significant discounts.

The other three defendants were convicted following a long trial.

Having heard arguments in mitigation, the judge will decide for himself on the extent of their culpability.

Today marks the fourth and final day of sentencing hearings at the Old Bailey.

During the first three, the prosecution and defence submitted to the judge their arguments for more severe or more lenient sentences - here’s what was said:

• Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said that ringleader Roussev would “always try and service the needs, service the requests of the Russian paymaster”

• She touched on the impact of the spy rings victims - telling the judge that one of the key targets of the group, Bergey Ryskaliyev, was forced to hire private security due to the threat posed by the spy ring
• Mark Summers KC, in mitigation for Orlin Roussev, said he had been contracted by the CIA to organise an evacuation flight from Kabul airport shortly before a suicide bombing - but noted his motivations weren't humanitarian, instead he was "fixing for money"
• Rupert Bowers KC, on behalf of Katrin Ivanova, told the court that she had been "lied to and manipulated by her partner" Biser Dzhambazov
• Tihomir Ivanchev's barrister, Mozammel Hossain KC, said his client was the "ultimate minion" and an "outsider in this case"
• Ivan Stoyanov, according to his barrister Hossein Zahir KC, was "remorseful" and "accepts he acted in a selfish way"
• Peter Wright KC said that the messages that Dzhambazov sent did not "contain proposals of harm" and that his client "embellished" his actions to make more money from them

Daniel De Simone
Reporting from the Old Bailey

This has been a case like no other.

For the first time in a UK criminal court, we read and saw the inner workings of a Russian operational spy cell: thousands of messages organising surveillance, photos and videos of their targets, and even talk of plans to kidnap and kill.

In the past – think of the poisonings Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, and of those in Salisbury in 2018 – we have seen the end result of dangerous Russian espionage operations.

In this case we saw planning and preparations that could have had similarly deadly results, but the cell was stopped before that could happen.

Key to the case was a trove of details found on the messaging app Telegram which police found.

These messages, police said, show the group intended to obtain information for Russia.

This included:

• Attempting to gain military equipment on behalf of Russia
• Using espionage tools and data, including manuals for hacking devices
• Surveillance and hostile activity against Russian state targets
• References to Putin and Russia’s security services

We're now just a few minutes away from the sentencing hearing starting. Here's a quick look at what each of the spies were found guilty of:

Three Bulgarian nationals - Vanya Gaberova, 30, Katrin Ivanova, 33, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39 - were found guilty of spying for Russia, in what police have described as "one of the largest" foreign intelligence operations in the UK.

Three of the Bulgarians - ringleader Orlin Roussev, 47, along with his second-in-command Bizer Dzhambazov, 44, and Ivan Stoyanov, 33 had earlier pleaded guilty to spying.

Image source, Crown Prosecution Service

Ringleader Orlin Roussev had referred to those working for him as his "minions" - a reference to the yellow sidekicks of the villain Gru in the Despicable Me children's film franchise.

In one instance, in his phone, police found “minion” attached to Vanya Gaberova’s contact entry.

The group also frequently referred to the Russian GRU agency - its military intelligence service - in Telegram messages.

When police raided the Norfolk guesthouse housing the operation, they found a number of Minions cuddly toys, including one which contained a spy camera.

As we just mentioned, Orlin Roussev ran the spy ring from a 33-room former guest in house in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.

You can see the moment of his arrest, when police stormed his hideout and discovered swathes of technical equipment - much of which Roussev claimed he had bought online to fix.

When police arrested Orlin Roussev - the head of the spy ring - in his Norfolk house, they found a “treasure trove” of spying gadgets including hidden cameras and fake toys.

Here’s a list of some of the items seized during the police’s operations, according to the Crown Prosecution Service:

• 221 mobile phones
• 258 hard drives / digital storage devices;
• 495 SIM cards
• 33 audio recording devices
• 55 visual recording devices
• 11 drones
• 16 radios
• 110 miscellaneous digital items including jammers, cyber exploitation hardware, hacking software, RFID card readers/writers, and GPS trackers
• 91 bank and other financial institution cards, including 17 in other individuals’ names
• 75 passports / identity documents, including 55 in other individuals’ names.

Image source, Julia Quenzler for BBC

The trial of the spying case, which has been described as "one of the largest" foreign intelligence operations in the UK, concluded in March.

It involved three of the Bulgarian nationals - Vanya Gaberova, Katrin Ivanova and Tihomir Ivanchev - the other three had pleaded guilty and therefore did not go to trial.

The court heard they were part of a group who travelled to Europe to carry out surveillance on journalists, a former politician and a US military base in Germany between 2020 and 2023.

During the trial, Ivanova and Gaberova admitted to surveillance activities but claimed they didn’t know it was for the benefit of Russia.

Ivanchev did not give evidence, but outlined a similar position during police interviews after being arrested.

The court heard that the operation posed a national security threat, with links to Jan Marsalek, who is wanted in Germany for alleged fraud linked to the financial services company Wirecard.

Image source, Metropolitan Police handout

In this afternoon’s hearing, the judge will pass down sentences for six Bulgarians convicted of spying for Russia between 2020 and 2023.

We’ll take you through their stories before we hear from the judge, but for now they are:

• Orlin Roussev, 47
• Katrin Ivanova, 33
• Ivan Stoyanov, 33
• Tihomir Ivanchev, 39
• Vanya Gaberova, 30
• Biser Dzhambazov, 44

Jacqueline Howard
Live reporter

This afternoon marks the conclusion of a case described by the Metropolitan Police as the sort of thing you would "expect to see in a spy novel".

Orlin Roussev and his spy ring of “minions”, equipped with false identity documents, hidden cameras in toys and eyeglasses kitted up with recording devices, were discovered plotting to kidnap and kill targets.

They were also found trying to ensnare targets in so-called honeytraps.

The six Bulgarian nationals each face up to 14 years in prison for their activities, which spanned the UK, Austria, Spain, Germany and Montenegro.

Their sentencing has been going for three days already, but it all concludes this afternoon.

We'll be bringing you the sentencing remarks direct from the Old Bailey, and you'll also be able to watch the judge sentence the convicted spies by pressing watch live at the top of this page.