A British policeman who turned KGB agent, John Symonds’ memoir provides a rare glimpse into Cold War espionage and the operations of Russian ‘‘illegals’’ – spies who operate under false identities without the protected status of diplomats.

A Metropolitan Police detective accused of corruption, Symonds fled Britain with a false passport in 1972.

In Morocco he came into contact with Soviet intelligence who recruited him and decided to employ him, under the code name ‘‘SKOT’’, as a ‘‘Romeo spy’’ targeting female Western officials, mostly diplomatic staff, to obtain classified information.

According to his own privately published account, substantially supported by information from the KGB defector Vasiliy Mitrokhin, Symonds achieved significant success over six years of operations on four continents.

He enjoyed his work, writing that, ‘‘I’d say: ‘join the KGB and see the world’ – first class. ‘‘I went to all over the world on these jobs and I had a marvellous time.

‘‘I stayed in the best hotels, I visited all the best beaches, I’ve had access to beautiful women, unlimited food, champagne, caviar whatever you like and I had a wonderful time. That was my KGB experience. I don’t regret a minute of it.’’

Symonds arrived in Australia under a false British identity in 1978 with the task of acquiring under false pretences Australian passports for use by other KGB agents. ‘‘This procedure required some skill, but I was adept at it and during my visit to Australia I made 20 separate applications for different passports, of which I collected 12 and gave them to my KGB handler in Canberra, with the other eight going directly to other addresses, or were collected by others,’’ Symonds writes.

The passport acquisition operation lasted six months and cost about $23,000 – approximately $100,000 in today’s prices.

Symonds describes how he would visit country towns to research the backgrounds of dead children whose identities could then be used by KGB illegals who could later travel to Australia and New Zealand to become acclimatised and enhance their English language proficiency.

‘‘I always looked for a fairly common name, often associated with orphans and illegitimate children given to institutions by their single mothers,’’ he writes in his memoir.

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