A millionaire businessman who sold fake bomb detectors to
countries including Iraq and Georgia, knowing they did not work, has been
convicted of fraud.
James McCormick, 56, of Langport,
Somerset, is said to have made £50m from sales of the devices.
The Advanced Detection Equipment was
based on a golf ball finder device and sold for up to $40,000 (£27,000) in
Iraq, Georgia, Saudi Arabia and Niger.
An Iraqi bomb victim described him as
a "morally bankrupt" man.
The models were described by prosecutors as completely
ineffectual and lacking any grounding in science.
Police said McCormick showed a complete disregard for the safety
of those who used and relied upon the device for their own security and
protection.
There is no evidence that he tried to sell to the Ministry of
Defence, but an Essex policeman organised a demonstration which was watched by
an MoD inspector.
McCormick claimed that the detectors could bypass "all
forms of concealment" and would detect explosives, drugs, and people.
He claimed they would work under water and from the air, and
would track an object up to one kilometre below the ground.
Devices came with cards which were "programmed" to detect
a wide array of substances from ivory to $100 bills.
Other substances could be detected if put in a jar with a
sticker which would absorb its "vapours" and then stuck onto a card
which would be read by the machine.
In fact his device was based on $20 golf ball finders he had
purchased from the US and had no working electronics.
Richard
Whittam QC, who was prosecuting, said "the devices did not work and he
knew they did not work."
Iraq spent more than $40m on 6,000
devices between 2008 and 2010.
Haneen Alwan needed 59 operations
after she was injured in a bomb blast in January 2009. She was two months
pregnant at the time and lost her child.
"When people passed through
checkpoints using these devices, they thought they would be safe, but they are
useless. The man who sold them has no conscience. He is morally bankrupt. How
could he sell them just for money and destroy other people's lives?" she
told a BBC Newsnight investigation into the case.
A senior Iraqi official told the BBC
that the useless devices had created a false sense of security - and that no
punishment would make up for the blood that had been shed as a result.
The Newsnight programme conducted an
investigation into the devices sold by McCormick's company, resulting in a UK
government ban on their sale in Iraq and Afghanistan in January 2010.
"The
devices were used at numerous checkpoints within Iraq during this period. It is
clear that both civilians and armed forces personnel were put at significant
risk in relying upon this equipment," said Det Insp Ed Heath of the Avon
and Somerset Constabulary, the deputy senior investigating officer.
"McCormick showed a complete
disregard for the safety of those that used and relied upon the device for
their own security and protection. He amassed many millions of pounds through
his greed and criminal enterprise."
Det Supt Nigel Rock of Avon and
Somerset Police called McCormick "a conman".
"We have heard evidence from
many, many experts, scientists, leaders in their field, who have said this was
a fraud. A sham.
That device has been used and is
still being used on checkpoints. People using that device believe it works. It
does not."
 |
| The fake bomb detectors were based on a $20 golf ball finder, pictured between two examples of McCormick's fake devices |
Police intend to pursue McCormick's
wealth under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
The 56-year-old currently owns houses
in Florida and Cyprus, as well as a yacht, and recently bought film star
Nicholas Cage's mansion in Bath.
McCormick was remanded on conditional
bail and will be sentenced on 2 May.
Culled from BBC
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