I spy spoof as government advert seeks ‘agent with licence to kill’

The fake £60,000-per-year advertisement calling for “particularly skilled professionals” was posted on Thursday on the Department for Work and Pensions’ Directgov.co.uk website on behalf of the Secret Intelligence Service MI6.

It said the Government had, from time to time, “a need to remove people whose continued existence poses a risk to the effective conduct of public order”.

But the DWP said it had removed the advert, which had a job reference code of “007”.

A spokeswoman confirmed that no professional killer was being sought for employment by MI6 via the website. “It is disappointing that somebody would want to post a false advert when people are looking for real jobs,” she said. “It has now been removed.”

She declined to say how the advert got onto the site, but said external employers were able to post job adverts on it.

The advert said: “The role would suit candidates with prior military experience, particularly in the use of sniper rifles.”