IRA supergrass 'left destitute' by MI5 He says he has suffered from alcoholism and post-traumatic stress disorder and has been left destitute as result of his work with MI5. Mr Gilmour also says his false identity does not stand up to scrutiny and fears that he could still be assassinated. He is taking his case to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, a closed tribunal which examines complaints against the security and intelligence services. Mr Gilmour agreed to become an undercover agent after he was severely beaten by IRA prisoners while on remand in Crumlin Road Prison for armed robbery when he was 17. Working as an agent for the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) special branch, he infiltrated the republican Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in 1976, earning £200 a week with bonuses for arrests and weapons finds. Gilmour moved on to join the IRA in 1980 where he was attached to an active service unit in the Brandywell area of Derry, working mostly as a getaway driver. He was arrested and released while working with the IRA but eventually his cover was blown in 1982 when police used information he supplied to recover an M60 machine gun. "I brought the INLA to their knees in Derry, I brought the IRA to their knees in Derry and I saved countless lives," he said in an interview with the BBC. If I'm being treated like this after so many years, what do you think people down the chain are being treated like? I am living on a knife edge because of my mental health, I have no financial stability, which I was promised - I have nothing. At the trial in which he appeared as a supergrass, Lord Lowry, ruled that Gilmour was: "entirely unworthy of belief ... a selfish and self-regarding man, to whose lips a lie comes more naturally than the truth." Mr Gilmour said he was "heartbroken and disgusted" by the judge's comments when the trial he had initiated collapsed. "I knew I was telling the truth, I was told there were deals struck by RUC men behind the scenes that decisions had to be made that wouldn't be palatable for me, so I was going to be the fall guy," he said. After Mr Gilmour's testimony, graffiti appeared around Derry saying he would "be got, sooner or later." He said he continued to be "totally paranoid" that he would be discovered and still keeps a gun by his bed. The Northern Ireland Office said it would not comment on whether or not a particular individual had been an agent. Five years ago Gilmour publicly voiced his desire to return home to Derry, asking Martin McGuinness, the deputy First Minister and former IRA commander, for assurances of his safety. Mr McGuinness said if exiles such as Gilmour wanted to return home, it was a matter for their own judgment and their ability to make peace with the community but Gilmour's former RUC handler advised him not to return.