LONDON -- A British businessman who has sold bomb-detecting equipment to at least 20 countries, including Iraq, will appear in a London court on Thursday to face fraud charges, BBC News reported.

Police with the Avon and Somerset Constabulary, in the southwest of England, told the BBC that Jim McCormick, 55, would face six charges including producing and supplying the devices knowing that they were designed or adapted for use in fraud.

The British government banned the export of the handheld ADE-651 in 2010 as a result of a BBC investigation that showed the device did not work. McCormick had been on bail since 2010 while authorities examined the sale of the device, the BBC reported.

U.K. bans export of bomb detection device

McCormick was director of a Somerset-based company called ATSC.

The Iraqi government reportedly spent $85 million on the detectors, which were used at most Baghdad checkpoints.

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In addition to the ADE-651, the ADE-650 and the ADE-101 are named in the charges, the Guardian newspaper reported. 

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