Tessa Phillips is a character in the television drama series Spooks

Spooks

Spooks is a British television drama series that originally aired on BBC One from 13 May 2002 – 23 October 2011, consisting of 10 series. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, as the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a...

. She was played by actress Jenny Agutter

Jenny Agutter

Jennifer Ann "Jenny" Agutter is an English film and television actress. She began her career as a child actress in the mid 1960s, starring in the BBC television series The Railway Children and the film adaptation of the same book, before moving on to adult roles and relocating to Hollywood.She...

Tessa joined MI5 in the early 1980s and eventually headed her own counter-terrorism unit, known as Section K. While she was working on a case with Zoe Reynolds

Zoe Reynolds

Zoe Reynolds is a fictional case officer in the counterterrorism department of MI5, featured in the British television series, Spooks, also known as MI5 in the United States. The character was played by Keeley Hawes...

, Zoe discovered that Tessa was running "phantom agents", non-existent sources whom she claimed to be bribing for important information. In reality she was keeping the money for herself, thereby defrauding MI5 out of tens of thousands of pounds. She left MI5 at the end of the first season, branded a traitor.

In series 2, she runs her own private security firm. At some point she spots an opportunity for both financial gain and revenge. By selling information to the Chala drug Cartel she deliberately sabotages an operation Harry is running, causing the death of an informant with whom Tom Quinn

Tom Quinn

Tom Quinn is a fictional character in the BBC espionage television series Spooks, which follows the exploits of Section D, a counter-terrorism division of MI5. He is portrayed by British actor Matthew Macfadyen. In the first two series, Tom is the chief of Section D...

had bonded. Tessa flees the country leaving behind a video for Harry, in which she gloats over trumping MI5.