His activities during the Second World War, in which he worked with MI5 interrogating refugees to England and the Free Dutch Government Polite Buitendienst (Foreign Police Service), resulted in the capture of eight spies.
[1] He interviewed over 30,000 immigrants to the UK at the euphemistically named "London Reception Centre" in the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building in Wandsworth.
The 1962 Dutch programme De Fuik, in which Pinto was portrayed by Frits Butzelaar,[4] was also derived from them.
[6] Conversely, Guy Liddell stated in 1942 that he had been told by Leonard Burt that Pinto had "a thoroughly bad record".
[8] He characterized himself as basically a generalist, with a knack for learning languages, skill in boxing and shooting ("I managed to reach amateur international standard,"[9]), and being an excellent bridge player and a "local" zoologist.