LONDON - A British judge on Thursday sentenced a businessman who sold fake (假冒的) bomb detectors (探测器) to 10 years in prison, saying the man hadn't cared about potentially (潜在的) deadly consequences.
It is believed that James McCormick got about $77.8 million from the sales of his detectors ---which were based on a kind of golf ball finder---to countries including Iraq, Belgium and Saudi Arabia. McCormick, 57, was convicted (判罪) of cheats last month and sentenced Thursday at the Old Bailey court in London.
"Your cheating conduct in selling a great amount of useless equipment simply for huge profit promoted a false sense of security and in all probability materially contributed to causing death and injury to innocent people," Judge Richard Hone told McCormick. "You have neither regret, nor shame, nor any sense of guilt."
The detectors, sold for up to $42,000 each, were said to be able to find such dangerous objects as bombs under water and from the air. But in fact they "lacked any grounding in science" and were of no use. McCormick had told the court that he sold his detectors to the police in Kenya, the prison service in Hong Kong, the army in Egypt and the border control in Thailand.
"I never had any bad results from customers," he said.
Why was McCormick sentenced to prison?
A.He sold bombs. | B.He caused death of people. |
C.He made detectors. | D.He cheated in business. |
According to the judge, what McCormick had done _______.
A.increased the cost of safeguarding |
B.lowered people's guard against danger |
C.changed people's idea of social security |
D.caused innocent people to commit crimes |
Which of the following is true of the detectors?
A.They have not been sold to Africa. |
B.They have caused many serious problems. |
C.They can find dangerous objects in water. |
D.They don't function on the basis of science. |
It can be inferred from the passage that McCormick _______.
A.sold the equipment at a low price |
B.was well-known in most countries |
C.did not think he had committed the crime |
D.had not got such huge profit as mentioned in the text |