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Alphons Timmerman

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Alphons Louis Eugene Timmerman (1904 – 7 July 1942) (assigned the codename Scruffy by the British) was a Belgian ship's steward who became a spy for the German intelligence agency, the Abwehr, during the Second World War. He was captured by the security services upon his arrival in Britain in September 1941. MI5 officers posed as Timmerman in correspondence with the Abwehr in an attempt to deceive them as to the competence of the British security services. This attempt was unsuccessful as German intelligence officers failed to spot deliberate mistakes in the letters, but did help to disprove the Abwehr's previously good reputation for intelligence work. Timmerman admitted to being a spy and was executed at Wandsworth Prison in 1942.