A British millionaire was on Thursday jailed for 10 years for selling fake bomb detectors to the Iraqi government and other countries, by a judge who told him he had blood on his hands.
James McCormick made an estimated £50 million (HK$604 million) from selling the devices, which prosecutors said were based on a novelty golf ball finder and had no scientific basis.
Last week, a jury at London’s Old Bailey found the 57-year-old guilty of three counts of fraud.
Passing sentence at the court on Thursday, judge Richard Hone said McCormick’s “callous confidence trick” had likely cost lives.
“I am wholly satisfied that 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,” he said.