formal reason for his dismissal was ever given, and that he was mid-assignment when he suddenly found himself barred from entering MI6 headquarters. Friends suggested that he was sacked after he complained about MI6's "unethical" tactics. Tomlinson argued that his supervisors had unfairly disregarded his personal circumstances. Tomlinson disputed the reasons for and legality of his dismissal and attempted to take MI6 before an employment tribunal. However, MI6 obtained a public-interest immunity certificate from the Foreign Secretary, Malcolm Rifkind. Having no further legal recourse to appeal against his dismissal, Tomlinson left the United Kingdom, and pursued his arguments against MI6 by publishing articles in the international press protesting his treatment, whilst working on a book detailing his career in the Service. In 1998, the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee recommended that MI6 should be subject to UK employment law. Since 2000, employees of MI6 have had the same employment rights as other British citizens, including written contracts and access to employment tribunals. However, MI6 refused to allow these procedures to be applied retroactively to Tomlinson's case. MI6 have not succeeded in obtaining another PII certificate since the Tomlinson case. The Big Breach Tomlinson moved to the Costa del Sol in Spain for 18 months from early 1996. Realising that a disgruntled former spy could be problematic for the agency, the aide-de-camp to the head of MI6 was enlisted to attempt to appease Tomlinson in February 1997. He offered him a £15,000 loan and a marketing job with Jackie Stewart's Formula One racing team, in return for a promise of silence. Tomlinson accepted the offer (he claims under duress) but retained the job for only a few months before he emigrated to Australia, where his younger brother lived. Tomlinson returned to Britain, and in October 1997 was arrested and accused of breaking the Official Secrets Act 1989, after delivering a seven-page synopsis of The Big Breach to the Australian office of Transworld, a British publisher. On 18 December 1997 he was sentenced to 12 months in prison after pleading guilty. In August 1998, after serving six months in prison and four months on probation, Tomlinson left the UK to live in exile. He set about completing The Big Breach, which was published in 2001 in Russia. The book alleged that MI6 had infiltrated the German Bundesbank with a mole, and that the Service had a special means of writing in invisible