London, January 24: Britain has banned the export of a hand-held machine marketed as a bomb-detection device in Iraq and Afghanistan because of allegations that it does not work.
The Department for Business Innovation and Skills halted the export of the ADE651 after a BBC Newsnight investigation Friday challenged the claims of the company, ATSC. The broadcaster took the key aspects of the device to a laboratory, which concluded that a component intended to detect explosives contained technology used to prevent theft in stores.
“Tests have shown that the technology used in the ADE651 and similar devices is not suitable for bomb detection,” the department said in a statement.
Though the device would not normally need a license because it is nonmilitary technology, the British government banned its export to Iraq and Afghanistan because of the risk that it could hurt British and allied forces.
Britain’s Press Association reported that Avon and Somerset Police had arrested the company’s director, Jim McCormick, on suspicion of fraud by misrepresentation and released him on bail.
Police did not name the man arrested, as is customary with British criminal cases, but said that it launched an investigation after the force became “aware of the existence of a piece of equipment around which there were many concerns.” “Given the obvious sensitivities around this matter, the fact that an arrest has been made, and in order to preserve the integrity of the investigation, we cannot discuss it any further at this time,” the force said in a statement.
——-Agencies