Fake Bomb Detectors - Uk Businessman Convicted

[baa99]

Will the Thai Military now admit they were taken by this scam?

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57581148/u.k-businessman-james-mccormick-convicted-of-selling-golf-ball-finders-as-bomb-detectors-to-iraq/

 

A millionaire businessman who sold fake bomb detectors that were based on a novelty golf ball finder to countries including Iraq was convicted Tuesday of fraud in a British court.

 

Police investigators said the bogus devices put people's safety at risk.

 

James McCormick, 56, is said to have made an estimated 50 million pounds ($76 million) from sales of his detectors, which claimed to be able to find explosives, drugs and people from planes, under water, underground and through walls. They could purportedly detect at distance and bypass "all known forms of concealment."

 

But experts said the hand-held devices, which were sold for up to 27,000 pounds ($41,000) each, in fact lacked "any grounding in science" and were "completely ineffectual as a piece of detection equipment."

 

"The devices did not work, and he knew they did not work," prosecutor Richard Whittam said. One of the earlier models McCormick sold was based on a novelty machine for finding golf balls that could be bought in the U.S. for less than $20, he added.

 

The detectors were sold to military and police forces around the world, including Iraq, Niger, Georgia, Egypt and Thailand.

[Coss]

Last I read from the Thai military, was that the devices did indeed work and that there was no need for any further testing...

[radioman]

Wasn't the argument something like 'since they didn't actually do any detection the determination couldn't be wrong 100% of the time and therefore they had some use'.

[Coss]

But Wait ! Let there be no conversation!

 

Army chief urges the public stop criticizing GT200 fraud

 

BANGKOK, 25 April 2013 (NNT) – Thailand's army chief general Prayuth Chan-ocha has asked the public to stop making comments or criticisms about the controversial bomb detector GT200 procurement.

 

The issue has drawn public attention and criticisms again, following the conviction of a British court on Tuesday of the owner of Comstrac Co. Ltd, the manufacturer and supplier of the GT200 bomb scanners, on grounds of fraud in selling deceptive bomb detectors to other countries including Thailand.

 

Commander-in-Chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha has requested the public to stop fueling criticisms and leave the case to be investigated by Department of Special Investigation (DSI) and the Thai court. He added that the army has already stopped using the devices for 2-3 years. However, he admitted that some military personnel still use them since there is no other alternative instrument. (my comment: so using something that is useless is better than not using it?)

 

When asked whether the procurement possibly involved fraud, the military leader responded that the buying of the equipment was done carefully by the responsible committee, and that any allegation of corruption should be made based on solid evidence.

 

When asked if allowance would be raised for the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) officials in the troubled southernmost provinces, Gen Prayuth said that the decision rested with the government.

 

-- NNT 2013-04-25

 

Stolen shamelessly from TVisa...

[Pom Michael]

Uh - This is Thailand? 'Nuff said.

[Coss]

I just saw a piece on BBC that showed the conman in the UK emerging from court etc. It also showed how he imported these devices (what ever they are) and re-labeled them.

 

And... it showed Iraqi military personnel still using them...

 

So it's not just Thailand

 

:rotl:

[Flashermac]

Wikipedia ...

 

<< The device is also widely used in Mexico, where security forces have used it to combat drug traffickers and to search for explosives. The Mexican government has spent over 340 million pesos ($27 million USD) buying GT200s at a cost of 286,000 pesos ($22,000) each. According to the government of Guanajuato state, the federal government has bought more than 700 GT200s. State governments have also bought their own GT200s; the device is reported to be in use by police in the Mexican states of Tabasco, Sonora, Sinaloa, Durango, Michoacán and Baja California. The Mexican military also utilises the GT200. In 2008 the Secretariat of National Defense had purchased 300 GT200s for use throughout the country, including at 133 strategic locations. By late 2009 the figure had increased to 521 GT200s, which had been deployed to 11 strategic checkpoints and 284 regional control stations around the country. In the violence-wracked city of Ciudad Juárez, the newspaper Excélsior reported that "military squads roam the streets and go from house to house, using a molecular detector known as GT200" to find weapons, drugs and money. Prison personnel in Juárez and its parent state, Chihuahua, have been provided with GT200s to detect escape tunnels being dug by prisoners.

 

The GT200 has been demonstrated in India for organisations including the Central Reserve Police Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, National Security Guards, Narcotics Control Bureau and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and was procured by the Dubai Customs in 2009. Hotels in Manila in the Philippines use it to detect bombs. It is also in use in Lebanon, Jordan and China.

 

The device is used to detect smuggled ivory in the central African states of Zambia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and the Republic of the Congo. The Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF) and the United Nations Environment Programme bought 15 GT200s in 2005 at a cost of $5,000 each and distributed them to the five LATF member states. In Uganda, the GT200s were installed at Entebbe International Airport, border crossings and internal checkpoints. A report submitted by Kenya to the CITES Standing Committee in 2006 stated that "three staffs from Tanzania were trained on the use of GT 200 Ivory Detector for the purposes of law enforcement against illegal dealing in ivory products, in the country. Four Ivory Detectors are currently in place and are used for law enforcement activities especially at entry and exit points." >>

[radioman]

This thing can detect so many different things, bet it could detect virgin girls in soi cowboy, or maybe corrupt policemen, how about winning lottery numbers?

[Dexi]

The device is based on the principle of " Dowsing ",using metal rods held in the hand which move or cross over when the object is located.Oddly enough this can actually work when used to find objects underground such as water pipes,wells etc although no-one knows why and there is no scientific explanation......@Radioman - "detecting virgins in Soi Cowboy " - you could be in for a long wait

[baa99]

There is no scientific explanation because dowsing doesn't work! Rigorous scientific tests show it does no better than random guessing.