James McCormick: devices "completely ineffectual." LONDON: When James McCormick told armies, police forces and governments that his bomb detectors worked from deep underwater or a low-flying plane, it might have sounded too good to be true. Especially when he added that they needed no power except the "electrostatic energy from the human body." I find what he did quite incredible and diabolical. Detective Superintendent Nigel Rock Nonetheless, he sold £37 million ($A55 million) worth to Iraq at up to £27,000 per device. The United Nations paid £46,000 for five of them to find bombs in Lebanon. And there were many other customers. In fact, the devices were £13 novelty golf ball finders with no scientific basis and absolutely no ability to identify explosives, the Old Bailey in London heard on Tuesday. McCormick, 57, who bought a yacht and homes in Bath and Cyprus with the profits, faces jail after being found guilty of fraud. He put many lives at risk, detectives said after the case. Thousands of the devices are still in use in Iraq. McCormick is thought to have made £14 million in five years from clients including the Kenyan police, Hong Kong's prison service, the Egyptian army, Thailand's border control and Saudi Arabia. A former electrical appliance salesman, McCormick became involved after another businessman demonstrated a supposed prototype in 2000, the court heard. He agreed to buy one for £10,000 and marketed the device to contacts around the world. The court heard that McCormick imported Gopher golf-ball finders costing £13 from the US and then got a UK manufacturer to add bits on before selling them for up to £27,000 each. The devices consisted of a swivelling antenna connected to nothing except a plastic handgrip. They were was said to need no battery or other power source. McCormick claimed the devices came to life after the user had shuffled their feet. Colour-coded cards were inserted depending on the substance to be detected: explosives, drugs, ivory, or even specific currencies. But they were simply blank pieces of plastic containing no technology. Experts told the court that the design lacked "any grounding in science, nor does it work in accordance with the known laws of physics," adding that it was "completely ineffectual as a piece of detection equipment." It was no better than trying to find explosives at random, said Richard Whittam, QC, prosecuting. Few Western agencies or experts were taken in. When UN officials tested their devices they found them "not fit for purpose" and refused to order more. But McCormick had great success in Iraq, where Major General Jehad al-Jabiri, the head of the interior ministry's anti-explosives arm, was taking millions in bribes. With his profits, McCormick bought a house in Bath, which he kept for entertaining at weekends. He had a £480,000 holiday home in Limassol, Cyprus, spent £630,000 on a yacht named Aesthete and kept three dressage horses in livery stables for his two daughters. He was finally arrested in 2010 in Britain, after the British embassy in Baghdad raised concerns and the Iraqi prime minister ordered an inquiry. Jabiri has since been jailed for procurement offences. McCormick denied three counts of fraud in relation to three models he sold, but an Old Bailey jury found him unanimously guilty on all three counts. He was granted conditional bail until sentencing on May 2. Detective Superintendent Nigel Rock said that he could not prove how many people had died as a result of the devices, but said that 6000 had been used around Baghdad's high security Green Zone. "It's inconceivable an [improvised explosive device] could not have gone through," he added. His device doesn't work and can never work and McCormick knows that.