Iran paraded a device this week which it claims can detect coronavirus cases from 100 yards away – but the contraption looks remarkably similar to a fake bomb detection gadget once flogged by a British fraudster.
Iranian Revolutionary Guard chief Hossein Salami boasted that ‘local scientists’ had invented the ‘state-of-the-art’ device to detect virus cases ‘remotely’ without the need for a blood test.
How this would work is unclear, but Iranian media claimed the device had an ’80 per cent accuracy’ rate and could eventually be adapted to ‘detect all kinds of viruses’.
The gadget has quickly drawn comparisons to the fake bomb detectors sold by James McCormick, a British conman who made £20million from his racket before he was eventually jailed in 2013.
Iranian officials wearing masks hold up the contraption with a long antenna, claiming it can detect coronavirus cases from a distance without the need for a blood test
This was one of the fake ‘bomb detector’ gadgets sold by British conman James McCormick, who made more than £20million from his scam before he was jailed in 2013
Iran was an early breeding ground for the virus and was blamed for exporting the virus across the Middle East because of the regime’s inaction.
But the semi-official Tasnim news agency said the ‘homegrown’ detection device was a ‘state-of-the-art and unique instrument’ developed by ‘local scientists’.
Major-general Salami attended an ‘unveiling ceremony’ himself where he said the device could be used for ‘screening of people on a large scale’.
Salami said the device creates a ‘magnetic field’ which locates a virus infection ‘within a 100-metre radius’ (100 yards), the commander said.
When the device’s antenna is pointed at a specific location, it will detect the contaminated spot within around five seconds, he boasted.
The device has supposedly been tested in hospitals with ’80 per cent accuracy’ and Iran hopes to develop ‘upgraded versions’ to test for other diseases.
Salami later went further and claimed ‘dozens of countries’ had contacted Iran with a view to getting hold of the gadget.
However, the equipment ‘would not be shared with the Americans until all sanctions are removed’, he warned, according to the website Al-Monitor.
Iranian officials including Revolutionary Guard commander Hossein Salami (third from left) parade their new ‘coronavirus radar’, claiming it can detect cases from 100 yards away
The device was proudly displayed at an unveiling ceremony on Wednesday where Iran showed off the invention of ‘local scientists’
The machine itself is a hand-held device with an antenna which resembles the fake explosive detectors once sold by James McCormick.
McCormick was jailed in 2013 for selling what prosecutors described as £13 novelty golf ball finders and presenting them as bomb detectors.
Jurors heard how McCormick had sold them as ‘completely ineffectual’ bomb detectors for up to £27,000 each to countries including Iraq.
Customers in Georgia, Niger and Bahrain among others were also duped and ripped off by McCormick.
McCormick spent his ill-gotten gains on a luxury villa in Cyprus and a £345,000 Sunseeker yacht among other things. He was convicted of fraud and jailed for 10 years.
Sentencing him, Judge Richard Hone QC said at the time that McCormick had a ‘cavalier disregard of the potentially fatal consequences’ of his scam.
‘The device was useless, the profits outrageous and your culpability as a fraudster has to be placed in the highest category,’ the judge told him.
‘I am wholly satisfied that your fraudulent conduct in selling so many useless devices for simply enormous profit promoted a false sense of security and in all probability materially contributed to causing death and injury to innocent individuals.’
The same year Gary Bolton from Kent was jailed for seven years over the sale of more than 1,000 useless detectors which he claimed could track down bombs, drugs, ivory and money.
The fake bomb detectors were sold by James McCormick (pictured), a British conman who made £20million from his racket before he was eventually jailed in 2013
Undeterred by the comparison, Iran has paraded a series of disinfection vehicles, mobile hospitals and other medical equipment to mark its national Army Day today.
Iran has confirmed 79,494 cases of coronavirus and 4,958 deaths, although there have been doubts about the accuracy of the regime’s figures.
A parliamentary report released earlier this week said the coronavirus death toll might be almost double the figures announced by the health ministry.
The number of infections could be eight to 10 times more given a lack of widespread testing, although that is true of many countries.
Friday’s ‘Defenders of the Homeland, Helpers of Health’ army parade was held at a training centre, witnessed by a group of commanders in face masks.
It was a stark difference from the typical Army Day parades, which are normally major showpieces involving infantry, missiles and warplanes.
‘Due to health and social protocols, it is not possible to hold a parade of soldiers…The enemy now is hidden and doctors and nurses are instead at the frontlines of the battlefield,’ President Hassan Rouhani said in a message to soldiers.
Army chief Abdolrahim Mousavi thanked the more than 11,000 military medical staff fighting to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus in Iran.
Deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi – whose own battle with the virus was an early embarrassment for the regime – warned earlier this week that infections could spread further in autumn.
‘We have to get used to living with the virus until an appropriate medication or vaccination is found,’ Harirchi said on state TV on Friday.