A 23-year-old former Territorial Army soldier is at the centre of an investigation by MI5 and the Metropolitan Police into a suspected attempt to pass classified military material to the Russians.

Peter Hill, who served in the TA attached to the Royal Armoured Corps, is to appear in court in Leeds today on a charge under the 1883 Explosive Substances Act after items were removed from residential and business addresses in Skipton, North Yorkshire, including sodium chlorate, hexamine tablets and a metal tube. Police and security sources confirmed that he had initially been arrested under the Official Secrets Act. The sources said that Mr Hill, now a risk analyst, was suspected of trying to pass classified military documents to a foreign intelligence service.

As a former trooper in the TA, the sources indicated, he would not have had access to top-grade secrets, but any attempt to contact foreign and potentially hostile intelligence services is seen as a serious offence. The inquiry is not focusing on an elaborate plot by the Russians, but is being viewed as a suspected attempt by an individual to contact the Russian intelligence service on an “opportunistic” basis.

Mr Hill is understood to have been subject to surveillance by both MI5 and the police. Arrested on Wednesday, he was questioned by police in Leeds. He was bailed until April on the spying allegations but was later charged with the explosives offence. The allegations under the two different Acts are not connected.

Mr Hill had been arrested on suspicion of breaching the Official Secrets Act, the Met said, but when addresses were searched, material was allegedly found that led to him being charged under the Explosive Substances Act.

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