Man Jailed For Selling Fake Bomb Detectors

A businessman who made £50m selling fake bomb detectors that allegedly caused the deaths of innocent Iraqis has been jailed for 10 years.

James McCormick was sentenced at the Old Bailey, after he was found guilty of three counts of fraud last month.

Judge Richard Hone said the 57-year-old, of Langport, Somerset, was responsible for a "callous confidence trick".

He added: "Your fraudulent conduct in selling so many useless devices for simply enormous profit promoted a false sense of security and in all probability materially contributed to causing death and injury to innocent individuals."

The kits also came with fake sensor cards to detect drugs and people

During his trial, the court heard the devices, which were sold for up to £27,000 each, had no scientific basis and were based on novelty golf-ball finders.

They were marketed to the military, police forces and government departments around the world using glossy brochures, and were said to be capable of finding bombs hidden underground or under water.

McCormick boasted: "It's a phenomenon. It's been known for a number of years."

McCormick showed salesmen how to use the fake devices

However, Richard Whittam QC, prosecuting, said: "The devices did not work and he knew they did not work."

Mr Whittam told the judge that former senior British officers in Iraq believed the detectors had cost lives - although McCormick's defence said there is no evidence to support such a claim.

In a statement read in court, Brigadier Simon Marriner said: "The inescapable conclusion is that devices have been detonated after passing through checkpoints. Iraqi civilians have died as a result."

African soldiers were among those who trialled the useless detectors

As well as Iraq, McCormick sold detectors to police in Kenya, the prison service in Hong Kong and the army in Egypt.

He said one of them had been used to check a hotel in Romania before the visit of an American president in the 1990s.

Det Supt Nigel Rock, of Avon and Somerset Police, said the profits made by McCormick "fed his greedy and extravagant lifestyle".

"He has shown no shame or remorse and carried on with a complete disregard for the consequences of his con trick," he added.

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