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Last Words
Phone jammer man in court
By Northampton Chronicle & Echo
12/03/2003
THE owner of a spy shop who supplies bugging equipment to police and the Ministry of Defence has been prosecuted for selling illegal mobile phone jammers.
Glenn Darien, who runs K9 Electronics in Kettering Road, Northampton, admitted selling the gadgets that can cut off all mobile phone conversations in a building with the touch of a button.
The devices, which cost £149.50 plus VAT and postage, can be used on buses or trains to cut off loud phone conversations or by cinemas to prevent ringing during the film, but they are illegal in Europe.
Darien imported between 20 and 29 of the gadgets from Taiwan last year and had sold 11 before he was raided by investigators from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
He appeared before Northampton Magistrates yesterday to plead guilty to the offences of supplying and using the cellphone jammer.
Martin Jenkins, prosecuting, said: “The cellphone jammer has no lawful purpose. It looks just like an ordinary phone but if you pull the flap down the keypad is totally inoperable.
“If you have it on a train and you are being irritated or annoyed [by people using mobile phones] you can activate it and all the people’s mobile phones in the carriage will be cut off and unusable.
“Perhaps we should pray for them to be legalised,” he added.
In mitigation, Chris Smith, defending, said Darien was “deeply ashamed” of the offence and had checked with his suppliers and on websites to find out if the jammers were legal.
Mr Smith said: “The mobile phone jammers were a very small part of his business.
“He supplies Her Majesty’s police force through their procurement department, which is based in Essex, and is in the process of negotiating a contract to supply items for surveillance to the Ministry of Defence.
“There is a great degree of legitimacy about his business.”
Magistrates gave Darien a one-year conditional discharge and ordered him to pay costs of £5,200 to partly pay for the DTI investigation.
DTI officers also seized 27 other devices from the shop suspected of not complying with regulations.
Read the full article appeared at Northampton Chronicle & Echo
Links:
See the list of Google search of "phone jammer".
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