Chatham; Businessman On Trial

2 July 2013, 13:29 | Updated: 2 July 2013, 13:37

A businessman created a £3 million-per-year company selling home-made bomb detectors that did not work, a court heard today.

Gary Bolton, 47, sold the devices around the world for up to £10,000 each, boasting that they could detect explosives, narcotics, ivory, tobacco and even money.

But they were no more than boxes with handles and antennae that he made at home and at the Kent offices of his company, Global Technology Ltd, the Old Bailey was told.

Tests carried out as far back as 2001 proved that the detectors, then called the Mole and later remarketed as the GT200, performed no better than random searches for explosives.

Richard Whittam QC, prosecuting, said the devices were relatively cheap to make.

"In fact the device, you may think, was nothing more than a box with a handle and antennae attached to it and pieces of plastic inside it,'' he said.

"He (Bolton) supplied a substantial number of these devices to be sold to a variety of overseas customers in many places including Mexico and Thailand.

"The essence of the allegation is that Gary Bolton knew these devices did not work but he made and supplied them so that they could be sold.

"And despite the fact that the prosecution alleges that they do not work... people did buy them and he could get that (#3 million) turnover and his company could make a considerable amount of money.''

Mr Whittam told the jury of eight men and four women that Bolton was also believed to have falsified documents showing that the devices did not work to suggest that they achieved good results.

The prosecutor said Bolton had admitted to officers from City of London Police's overseas corruption unit after his arrest in June 2010 that he made the devices at home and at the company's offices near Ashford, where component parts for the GT200 were found.

He also admitted in interview to having no background in science, research, training or security, the court heard.

Bolton, of Redshank Road, Chatham, Kent, denies two charges of fraud between January 2007 and July 2012.