Prawit mulls dud detector suit.
Thai authorities were considering whether to sue a jailed British businessman who sold them bogus bomb detectors following an asset seizure order, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon said yesterday.
His comments follow a news report that James McCormick, who is serving a 10-year jail term for making bogus bomb detectors, has been ordered by a British court to forfeit cash and assets worth about 395 million baht.
Gen Prawit said he has instructed state agencies affected by the bogus detectors to consider what they can do in light of the court order.
Thirteen agencies are believed to have been duped into buying 1300 fake bomb and drug detectors from UK-based Comstrac Co, owned by McCormick.
Gent Prawit also insisted the GT200 detectors are not longer used by the army which has said to have been the major buyer of the devices. The army purchased more than 700 GT200 units after 2006, with most of them used in the restive deep South.
According to BCC reports, Judge Richard Hone QC who in a 2013 trail said McCormic's fraud had undoubtedly cost lives, recently ordered that his cash, property and a luxury motor cruiser be taken from him.
The judge also ordered that some of that money should be paid in compensation to nations around the world that bought the devices, including Bahrain, Lebanon, Niger and Georgia. Iraq is due to receive 2.3 mEuro(115 million baht) in compensation.
After the 2013 ruling by the British court, the Department of Special Investigation accepted the purcahse of the GT200 bomb detectors as a special case.