French spy was more Clouseau than Bond

A French spy tailed Islamic extremists in London without the knowledge of the British secret services, only to have his cover blown by a curtain-twitching grandmother.

Pierre Martinet spent several months monitoring the activities of Abu Walid, a suspected member of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and Abu Hamza, who turned the Finsbury Park mosque into a base for recruiting radical followers.

Martinet was preparing the way for any follow-up teams the French government might send to Britain to "neutralise" terrorist suspects. He claims neither MI5 nor MI6 had any idea of his activities, but a pensioner forced him to abandon his mission.

She spotted Martinet acting in what she thought was a suspicious manner and dialled 999. In fact he was carrying out surveillance of Walid's home in Wembley. "A police car pulled up," said Martinet, 41. "I was able to fob them off by saying I was waiting for a football match, but once they radioed my identity it would only take a call to Interpol to unmask me, so I had to leave London immediately."

In his book La DGSE, Action Service: An Agent Comes Out of the Shadows, Martinet says he wore long sideburns and a tweed cap as his disguise.

"James Bond wears a tuxedo, drives an Aston Martin and gets the girls. We rent cheap Renaults, avoid cocktails and never stand out," he writes. "We work as in the Second World War films. Each of us has a false identity, false passports. We only communicate-in bars and make sure we're never followed."

Martinet, who retired from the service after leaving London, says of the capital: "London was James Bond, Shakespeare, the Beatles and French footballers who had emigrated. It's clear that the English can't stand us and we return the compliment."