Yahoo News Bogus Bomb Detector Scam Pair Sentenced
A husband has been jailed and his wife given a suspended prison sentence for creating and selling bogus bomb detectors by making "fantastical" claims about what the gadgets could locate.
Sam Tree was jailed for three-and-a-half years, while his wife Joan, 62, was handed a two-year prison sentence and ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work in the community for her role in the scam which earned them about £2m.
The 68-year-old claimed the dud devices - of which he made some 1,500 in his garden shed in Dunstable, Bedfordshire - could track down explosives, drugs and people - including missing Madeleine McCann.
Detectives heralded the sentencing as the "concluding act in a highly complex, extensive and significant investigation".
The pair were associated with three other British con artists convicted of making fake detectors.
It is believed the criminals made around £80m from the scam.
Gary Bolton, of Chatham, Kent, was jailed last August for seven years, James McCormick, of Langport, Somerset, for 10 years last May and Anthony Williamson, of Gosport, Hampshire, was also convicted last May.
Detective Constable Joanne Law, of City of London Police, described the device - known as the Alpha 6 - as an empty hand-held, plastic, rectangular unit with a free-swinging aerial on the front which had a card inside marked with the explosive, substance or person it was designed to locate.
She told Sky News: "We received information some years ago that these hand-held devices were being sold internationally, predominantly in Iraq.
"We were able to secure one of the devices and test it. We quickly realised that these devices were not capable of finding explosives.
"We found a handle which had a picture of Madeleine McCann inside of it, and they claimed they used that to try and locate Madeleine.
"They said the picture was enough to excite neutrons and ions within the device to make the antenna work. They also claimed static electricity generated by your body when you walk was enough to power the device. There are no batteries in it - no electrical equipment at all."
The officer said the detectors and the so-called science behind them were examined by experts who concluded "it's absolute rubbish, none of it is true".
She added: "They decided people's lives were not worth considering, above their own greed."
The Trees were found guilty at the Old Bailey in August of making an article for use in a fraud between January 2007 and July 2012.
Passing sentence at London's Kingston Crown Court on Friday, Judge Richard Marks QC told the couple: "The aerial would point to the vicinity or direction of the objects or person being looked at.
"One only has to look at the facts to see this as a bizarre and fantastic proposition as to be almost akin to something out of Alice in Wonderland."
