Jim McCormick, who sold fake bomb detectors to Iraq, loses appeal
A conman who sold fake bomb detectors to Iraq has lost a challenge against his 10-year jail sentence.
Three judges at the Court of Appeal in London rejected an application by James McCormick, 57, of Langport, Somerset.
His application for leave to appeal against the sentence imposed at the Old Bailey earlier this year was thrown out by Lord Justice Davis, Mr Justice Nicol and the Recorder of Chester, Judge Elgan Edwards.
McCormick, a former policeman and salesman who was found guilty of three offences of fraud, was thought to have made £50 million from selling three models based on a novelty £13 golf ball finder to Iraq and other countries.
Giving the ruling of the court today, Judge Edwards said of the “callous confidence trick” carried out by McCormick: “The circumstances were quite appalling. The applicant knew precisely what he was doing.
“He did it for enormous profit and that conduct simply cannot and will not be tolerated.”
At the Old Bailey, Judge Richard Hone told McCormick, when imposing the maximum sentence: “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.”
The prosecution said there was no scientific basis to the detectors and they were nothing more than a con.
Judge Hone told McCormick: ”What you perpetrated was a callous confidence trick. The device was useless, the profit outrageous and your culpability as a fraudster has to be placed in the highest category.
”Your profits were obscene. You have neither insight, shame or any sense of remorse.”
The judge said McCormick had shown a ”cavalier disregard of the potentially fatal consequences” of his con.
McCormick, who until the end continued to maintain the detectors worked, is facing a confiscation hearing to recover millions of pounds.
He is believed to have sold 6,000 of his fake detectors to Iraq and 1,000 to other police and military forces including United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon.
Three judges at the Court of Appeal in London rejected an application by James McCormick, 57, of Langport, Somerset.
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James McCormick, the Somerset businessman who sold fake bomb detectors to Iraq that were in fact golf ball finders, has lost his appeal against his sentence at the Court of Appeal
McCormick, a former policeman and salesman who was found guilty of three offences of fraud, was thought to have made £50 million from selling three models based on a novelty £13 golf ball finder to Iraq and other countries.
Giving the ruling of the court today, Judge Edwards said of the “callous confidence trick” carried out by McCormick: “The circumstances were quite appalling. The applicant knew precisely what he was doing.
“He did it for enormous profit and that conduct simply cannot and will not be tolerated.”
At the Old Bailey, Judge Richard Hone told McCormick, when imposing the maximum sentence: “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.”
The prosecution said there was no scientific basis to the detectors and they were nothing more than a con.
Judge Hone told McCormick: ”What you perpetrated was a callous confidence trick. The device was useless, the profit outrageous and your culpability as a fraudster has to be placed in the highest category.
”Your profits were obscene. You have neither insight, shame or any sense of remorse.”
The judge said McCormick had shown a ”cavalier disregard of the potentially fatal consequences” of his con.
McCormick, who until the end continued to maintain the detectors worked, is facing a confiscation hearing to recover millions of pounds.
He is believed to have sold 6,000 of his fake detectors to Iraq and 1,000 to other police and military forces including United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon.
Read more: http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Jim-McCormick-sold-fake-bomb-detectors-Iraq-loses/story-20066575-detail/story.html#ixzz2kRKBSRyZ
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