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 key components of the bomb detector to a laboratory, which concluded that a key component intended to detect explosives was akin to 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 investigations, 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.”
