Kentish Express Ashford & District
Bomb detector businessman guilty of fraud
Unanswered calls and emails to firm
jscott@thekmgroup.co.uk A crooked businessman who made millions of pounds by selling fake “bomb detectors” to security forces around the world is facing years behind bars.
Gary Bolton roped in British diplomats and Army officials to help sell the GT200 and “Mole” devices for up to £20,000, claiming they could find explosives, drugs, cash, tobacco and even humans from up to three miles away.
But the detector, sold by Global Technical based at The Glenmore Centre in Moat Way, Sevington, actually had its origins in a novelty golf ball finder and was merely a retractable antenna mounted on a plastic box.
Bolton, 47, from Chatham, baffled officials and potential customers with crackpot scientific theories to drum up support for his Ashford-based firm.
He managed to hoodwink the diplomat brother of Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman into offering his support while serving as the UK’s ambassador to Mexico.
Members of a trade body linked to the British Army also helped sell Bolton’s machines to the military in Saudi Arabia, and one official at the Royal Engineers Export Support Team boasted the device was “the best thing since sliced bread”.
Prosecutor Richard Whittam QC said: “He claimed it was a detection system capable of detecting a mere trace of a substance and was the most reliable, advanced system.”
Global Technical was turning over £3m at its peak, selling the GT200 to countries including Thailand, China and Saudi Arabia.
More than 1,000 were sold in Mexico, where clients included customs officials and 27 state governments, and a small number were bought by the Dutch Navy.
They were also tested by British American Tobacco and airport authorities at Heathrow.
Scientific tests later proved the The GT200 bomb detector being used
‘Clearly these are very serious offences’
machines offered no advantage over random chance – but Bolton continues to insist they work perfectly.
But after a three-week Old Bailey trail Bolton, of Redshank Road, St Mary’s Island, was convicted of fraud last Friday.
Judge Richard Hone QC said: “Clearly these are very serious offences.”
Bolton, who claims to have posttraumatic stress disorder, will become the second crook to be sentenced over the scam next month.
Businessman Jim McCormick, 57, was jailed for 10 years in May this year after making £60 million selling his ADE devices, which allowed dozens of armed terrorists to sail through Iraqi checkpoints and launch suicide attacks.
Bolton and McCormick developed the ‘Mole’ device together in the early 2000s but started separate companies after a quarrel.
Inventor Anthony Williamson, 58, who built his own useless devices in his garden shed, is also awaiting sentence but has told he is likely to be spared jail because of his minor role in the fraud.
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