Former council worker who was arrested after passenger jet was escorted by fighter jets was convicted over terror videos

• Khalid Baqa was pulled from plane at Stansted airport earlier this month
• Airliner was forced to land due to an unrelated security alert on board
• Baqa now faces a fraud trial over claims he failed to tell insurers of a conviction
• He was previously jailed for two counts of disseminating terrorist publications

Khalid Baqa was arrested on a flight from Pakistan. He has a previous conviction for disseminating terrorist publications

A former council worker convicted over terrorism charges was on board a passenger jet when fighter planes were scrambled to ground the aircraft, a court heard today.

Father-of-six Khalid Baqa, 52, was arrested when the plane was made to land at Stansted Airport instead of Heathrow because of an unrelated security alert on February 7.

The former Hackney council employee was jailed for two years in 2013 after he was caught watching terrorist propaganda at his desk in the benefits office.

He also used his work computer to trawl Islamic websites and hid discs containing 26 hours of speeches by the hate preacher Anwar al-Awlaki in his car and his children's bedroom.

The plane had been flying from Baqa's home town of Lahore in Pakistan and Baqa was wanted by police for insurance fraud.

He was charged with one count of fraud by false representation, namely that he failed to disclose to an insurance company a previous conviction intending to make a gain.

Baqa chose to have his trial at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court on April 6.

Baqa previously admitted two counts of disseminating terrorist publications at the Old Bailey in April 2013.

Footage emerged of Baqa being escorted from the plane this month. He was not connected with the reason it was diverted and escorted to the ground

The material contained footage of beheadings and executions, the explosions of improvised explosive devices, the last will and testament of one of the London bombers, footage of the 9/11 attacks and jihadi fighters in combat. 

He pleaded guilty on the basis that he was holding the discs for an unknown person and had not intended to distribute them himself.

It was then ordered that his activities be monitored for ten years and his stash of videos were destroyed. 

The Metropolitan police said the plane's grounding on February 7 was unrelated to his arrest, and they had planned to pick him up at Heathrow.

Baqa, of Barking, east London, today denied fraud by false representation and was granted unconditional bail until his trial at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court on April 6.

Setting out the latest charge, prosecutor Tom Gill told Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court: 'The defendant applied unlawfully for vehicle insurance and didn't disclose previous details of previous driving convictions.'

'He received lower payment of insurance as a result.'

Alison Marks, defending, said: 'The issue here is that there is a lack of dishonesty from Mr Baqa.

'The answers that he gave in his policy application, he genuinely believed those answers to be true.' 

It was reported at the time of his previous conviction that Baqa, the son of an English professor, came to the UK when he was two-years-old and holds both British and Pakistani passports.

He is understood to have four children with his first wife, who died in a car crash in 2007, and two more children with his second wife.