Václav Jelínek (23 August 1944 – 8 February 2022)[1] was a Cold War era spy for Communist Czechoslovakia, who worked in London under the assumed identity of Erwin van Haarlem.
[3] Eventually, Jelínek tired of working as a waiter, and, with funding from the StB, bought a flat at Silver Birch Close[5] in Friern Barnet, North London and set up as an art dealer.
[3] He was eventually arrested in the flat on 22 April 1988, while in the process of receiving coded messages by radio.
[3] The jury returned a guilty verdict after just 45 minutes deliberation, and on 3 March 1989 he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment.
[3][6] In 2006, VPRO, a radio station in the Netherlands, ran a two-part programme about van Haarlem, called Het Spoor Terug (The Trail Back).
[6] His memoirs, written up by Jaroslav Kmenta [Wikidata] were published in Czech in 2010, under the title Český špion Erwin van Haarlem.