News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

The evil conman whose fake bomb detectors led to “deaths and injuries” around the world was today jailed for the maximum 10 years.

Married dad-of-two Jim McCormick, 57, became a multi-millionaire with the massive fraud which tricked the governments, police and armed forces of more than 20 countries into buying the useless gadgets.

Thousands of the “trusted” devices were sold in Iraq, where they were supposed to protect military personnel and civilians from terrorist attack.

(Image: Avon and Somerset Police)

Passing sentence at the Old Bailey, Judge Richard Hone told McCormick: “The devices were useless, the profit outrageous and your culpability as a fraudster has to be placed in the highest category.

“The principal aggravating feature is that… what you perpetrated was a callous confidence trick.

“You knew the devices did not work, yet the soldiers of Iraq and elsewhere believed in them, in part due to your powers of salesmanship and in part the extravagant and fraudulent claims made in your promotional material.

"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.”

Ex-policeman McCormick sold 7,000 of the fake devices – based on a joke golf-ball finder – for up to £33,000 each, amassing £60million.

(Image: Avon and Somerset Police)

Customers included the Iraq government, the UN, the Kenyan police, the Hong Kong prison service, Thailand’s border control and Saudi Arabia.

He claimed they could track bombs through walls, under water and 30ft below ground – but in reality, they had no working components.

McCormick, from Langport, Somerset, used his fortune to buy a £3.5million Georgian mansion in Bath from Hollywood star Nicolas Cage plus homes in Florida and Cyprus.

He splashed out £630,000 on a yacht, which he used only twice.

Det Supt Nigel Rock, who led the investigation, said today: “The next stage is to make sure all of McCormick’s… extravagant lifestyle is taken away from him, to pursue his assets wherever we can.”

Dodgy devices still used around world

Useless detectors sold by McCormick are still being used in hotels and in war-torn parts of the world.

Security guards for hotel chains use them as a “deterrent” because ­insurance companies say ditching them would increase their ­vulnerability to terrorist attacks.

And they are even used by the Iraqi Government – despite British officials urging it to get rid of them.

A security source said: “They’re being used in Baghdad as we speak. God only knows why – maybe it’s because they’re embarrassed having spent £48million on rubbish.

“Most other government agencies have stopped but hotel companies still have them.

"Some of the big ­insurance companies feel terrorists could attack a hotel whose security guards don’t have the device.”

A police spokesman added: “­Thousands were in Baghdad.

"It’s inconceivable a bomb hasn’t been through a checkpoint where someone relied on the device to protect them.”