Fraud charge over 'fake bomb detectors'

12 July 2012

A British businessman who sold $85m of 'fake' bomb detectors to Iraq has been charged with fraud, Avon and Somerset Police has confirmed.

Jim McCormick, 55, was arrested in early 2010 after a BBC Newsnight investigation showed that the ADE-651 bomb detectors his company ATSC had sold to the Iraqi government and 20 other countries "could not possibly work". The devices were being used to detect bombs at Iraqi security checkpoints at the time.

The ADE-561 was tested by the Cambridge Computer Laboratory, whose Dr Markus Kuhn said the devices contained no computer parts, memory or micro controller whatsoever.

Soon after, the government banned the export of the device and McCormick was arrested in January 2010. He has been since then while police investigated the claims.

McCormick, who will appear before City of London Magistrates' Court today, faces six charges relating to producing and supplying the devices while knowing that they were designed or adapted for use in fraud.