Businessman found guilty of selling novelty golf ball finders as bomb detectors

A Somerset-based millionaire businessman who sold fake bomb detectors to countries including Iraq, Georgia, Romania, Niger, Thailand and Saudi Arabia, knowing they did not work, has been convicted of fraud. James McCormick, 56, of Langport, Somerset, is said to have made £50m from sales. Iraq spent more than $40m (£26.2m) on 6,000 devices between 2008 and 2010.



The devices, which sold for up to $40,000 (£27,000), were based on a novelty golf ball finder and supposed to detect explosives, people and drugs. 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. 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 banknotes. Other substances could be detected - it was claimed - if put in a jar with a sticker which would absorb its "vapours" and which was then stuck on to a card which would be read by the machine. In fact McCormick's device was based on $20 (£13) golf ball finders which he had purchased from the US, and had no working electronics. Police say the only genuine part of the kit - and the most expensive - was the carrying case.

News video from the time of McCormick's initial arrest.

YouTube link. BBC News link.

A senior Iraqi official said 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. Avon and Somerset Police, which began investigating Jim McCormick in 2009, are trying to track down the millions which he amassed through the sales. He has an expensive country home in Somerset, with three dressage horses, as well as houses in Florida and Cyprus, and a yacht. He also bought film star Nicholas Cage's mansion in Bath. But, convicted now of such a serious fraud, he is expected to spend the next few years in a jail cell. McCormick was remanded on conditional bail and will be sentenced on 2 May.