Three British government departments and agencies promoted the international sale of fake bomb detectors which are thought to have cost lives, despite a Whitehall-wide warning they were useless.
On Tuesday, Kent businessman Gary Bolton, 47, was jailed for seven years at the Old Bailey for fraud over the sale of thousands of devices based on novelty golf ball finders which he claimed could detect explosives and drugs but which detectives said were "nothing more than plastic handles with aerials as antennae".
In the aftermath of Bolton's sentencing, it can be revealed that the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the government's trade arm, UKTI, gave promotional, diplomatic and financial backing to Bolton over several years even though a Home Office expert in bomb detection equipment found his device's ability to detect explosives was no better than random .... http://www.theguardian.com
