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Cliff Buddle

RONALD MILHENCH sat in the dock blinking anxiously through his spectacles. After receiving his sentence he shuffled slowly towards the cells.

He did not look much like James Bond, the fictional British spy he tried to imitate.

But the wealthy businessman's life has not been short of the excitement which he craved.

He was born in 1937 and joined the British Army at the age of 15, entering the Royal Engineers. In 1966 he was honourably discharged.

 During his army years Milhench developed an interest in firearms. He began to study and collect guns.

After returning to civilian life he ran an insurance broking business and a hotel, as well as speculating in property.

  But by 1974 his fortunes were in a state of decline, the court heard.

A court appearance in Britain in 1974 arose out of his attempt to purchase industrial land from Anthony Field, who was the brother of prime minister Harold Wilson's secretary at that time.

The letter which he forged in the politician's name suggested that Mr Wilson was somehow involved in the land deal, said Milhench's barrister, Robert Forrest.

He was also convicted of 'technical' firearms offences for which he received a six-month concurrent sentence.

 During the trial in Britain there was speculation that Milhench might have had a political motive.

 He was released from his three-year sentence in March 1976. He left England for the Philippines and it was there, conducting business for more than a decade, that he made his fortune.

But Milhench was not happy to sit back and enjoy his wealth. He had a thirst for danger.

When the Mount Pinatubo volcano erupted in the Philippines in 1991, devastating the area around the hotel he owned, Milhench refused to leave the building. He enjoyed the risk.

Later his involvement with yachts was to lead to him gaining information about smuggling operations.

He struck up a friendship with fellow Freemason Lord Moynihan, who at that time was working as an undercover agent for the American Drug Enforcement Agency.

Moynihan, who died in the Philippines in 1991, had been regarded by some as a 'black sheep' of the English aristocracy, said Mr Forrest.

He read an obituary from an English newspaper which described the lord as a 'bongo drummer, brothel-keeper, drugs smuggler and police informer'.

It was Moynihan who provided Milhench with the false British passport later found in his Hong Kong safe deposit box.

The court heard the two men planned to take part in undercover anti-drug smuggling operations. But the plans were never put into operation.

Instead Milhench set out on his own secret mission to help 'blow wide open' an illegal immigrant smuggling operation. The passport was to give him a false identity for this purpose alone.

He came to Hong Kong to meet the smugglers. The court heard he lent them money to finance their operation in the hope of later turning them over to the police.

In return they gave him the bogus chops which he put in his safe deposit box, the court heard.

Mr Forrest said there was one other strange item found in Milhench's possession when he was arrested which gave a clue to his character. Inside his briefcase were two packets of stink bombs.

'This is hardly the sort of equipment carried by James Bond,' said Mr Forrest. 'This was a ridiculous piece of behaviour which seems to sum up the man.' 



Fantasy spy finds action and prison cell