A British software engineer who worked for the UK's Secret Intelligence Service MI6 has been handed a one year jail sentence for attempting to sell top secret material.
Daniel Houghton was sentenced Friday but was released immediately after having already spent 184 days in custody, according to a BBC report.
The former MI6 employee was caught with 7,000 top secret files on a USB stick and more documents stored on his hard drive.
He had attempted to sell the documents for £2 million ($3.3 million) to Dutch agents; however the would-be buyers thought it was a hoax.
Houghton was haggled down to £900,000 shortly before being arrested in March.
According to the report, the software engineer, who was paid £23,000 per year, told the court that "voices" directed him to steal the information.
iTnews Executive Retreat - Security Leaders Edition
_(1).jpg&h=140&w=231&c=1&s=0)
