Jehovah’s
Witnesses Brother and Sister Tree Swindle Victims!
A brother
writes:
“You may have seen reports of fake bomb detectors
make in England. The maker of them from Dunstable in England is a Jehovah's
Witness along with his wife.
Their names are SAM and JOAN TREE, they are in
one of the Dunstable congregations and they have just been sentenced. He has
gone to prison and she has to do community service. You will find the story
with an internet search. The media has not brought out that they are witnesses,
and I think that people should be told about this."
Video here
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-28602876
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11139351/Man-jailed-over-fake-bomb-detectors-he-said-could-find-Madeleine-McCann.html
Dunstable pensioner Samuel Tree jailed for 3 and half years for selling bogus bomb detector which he claimed could find Madeleine McCann
By LutonOnSunday
| Posted: October 03, 2014
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By BY JULIA SUTTON
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Article Start Comments (0)
A DUNSTABLE pensioner who claimed his
'Alice in Wonderland' bomb detectors could find missing schoolgirl Madeleine
McCann was jailed for a total of three-and-a-half years today (October 3).
Samuel Tree, 67, and his wife Joan,
62, of Houghton Road, Dunstable, were part of a gang of five swindlers who made
more than £100m selling bogus devices that put the lives of British soldiers at
risk.
They both denied making an article
for use in fraud.
Among their bizarre claims for the
detectors was that the could sniff out hidden ivory at a distance of three
miles.
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The Trees also insisted they had
tracked the missing three-year-old to a site on the M48 motorway.
In reality, the devices were cheap
plastic boxes imported from China and assembled in the couple's garden shed in
Dunstable at a cost of just £5.10.
Juries had previously convicted Jim
McCormick, Gary Bolton, both 58, Anthony and Anthony Williamson, 59.
Passing sentence at Kingston Crown
Court, Judge Richard Marks QC said: 'You decided to market this device along
with the other defendants previously convicted.
'Thereafter you commissioned the
device's production in China, where the cost of an individual piece was just
over £5.
'You had the device stamped 'Made in
Britain,' which in my view is plainly dishonest.
'The device underwent various name
changes over the years, but for all practical purposes it was the same thing.
'The modest production cost is a
reflection of the fact that this device was effectively a black plastic box,
one similar to what might look like a small radio.
'But this proceeded to be sold for as
much as £2,000 per item.
'The way in which it worked was that
a piece of card or paper would be attached to it, an image reflecting what it
was proposed to be looking for.
'The ariel would then point to the
vicinity or direction of the person or object being searched for.
'One only has to look at the bare
facts to see this as a bizarre and fantastic proposition akin to something out of
Alice in Wonderland.
'This device was completely
ineffectual. The basis on which it worked was a complete fantasy.
'Even if you had not written line by
line your own sales literature, the most customary glance at it would had put
you on notice that all mannerof scientific claims were mad.
'That you decided not to sell the
products in this country and not expose it to closer scrutiny, suggests a great
deal about your motives.'
The judge took pity on Joan Tree, who
received a two-year suspended sentence.
Over the years the Trees made
hundreds of thousands of pounds from the devices.
McCormick, who was jailed for ten
years, raked in £60m selling his devices around the world, including 6,000 for
use in the perilous Green Zone in war-torn Iraq.
He sold his machines to the UN in
Lebanon, the military in Iraq and Belgium, and the Hong Kong prison service.
He paid £13 for the machines before
modifying them and selling them for up to £27,000 a time.
Bolton, who was jailed for seven
years, made £45m from the scam, duping British diplomats and Army officials
with wild claims the devices could detect explosives, drugs, cash, tobacco and
even humans at distances of up to three miles.
He used crackpot scientific theories
to hookwink Giles Paxman, the diplomat brother of celebrity journalist Jeremy
Paxman, into supporting him while he was serving as the UK's ambassador to
Mexico.
Bolton's devices were flogged to
Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, Egypt, China, and Thailand, with officials
convinced they were 'the best thing since sliced bread'.
The scam sold bogus products XK9,
Alpha 6, GT200 and The Mole through the firms Global Technical Ltd, Tactical
Electronic Services, CommsTrack, and Keygrove International.
Brendan Kelly QC, defending Samuel
Tree, said:'It is agreed that Mr Tree played a significant role in this
offending, there can be no doubt argument about that,' Mr Kelly said.
'Mr Tree is content for me to say on
his behalf that the role played by Mrs Tree herself is substantially different
to his.
'I submit on his behalf that had it
not been for him she would not have involved herself in this plot.'
Judge Marks added: 'Financially this
case will be disastrous for you because it will inevitably mean that you will
lost all of your assets.'
The court heard that the Trees will
likely lose their £180,000 house and £10,000 at a confiscation hearing set for
27 February 2015.
Joan Tree was also ordered to carry
out 300 hours of unpaid community work.
Judge Marks QC concluded: 'Joan Tree,
you are in a significantly different situation to the one of your husband in my
view.
'It is undoubtedly the case that you
played a significantly lesser role.
'You were concerned with assisting
your husband, not marketing or selling like him or in training.
'You were, I am satisfied, acting
under direction from your husband and would not have become involved in this
situation had it not been for him.
'I have given anxious consideration
as to whether there is scope for suspending your sentence, and I have by the
narrowest of margins decided that by this lesser role this is just possible.
'You should consider yourself
extremely fortunate as you have come as close to anyone to receiving a
custodial sentence.'
She hugged her husband before he was
led to the cells.
Detective Constable Joanne Law, who led
the investigation for the City of London Police's Overseas Ant-Corruption Unit,
said: 'Sam and Joan Tree were a couple driven by personal greed, manufacturing
useless detectors which they knew were being marketed to police and security
services around the world as being able to locate anything from hidden
explosives to missing persons.
'The devices cost the couple only a
few quid to make but were being sold on by agents for prices ranging from
several thousand to half a million pounds, despite the fact they were nothing
more than plastic boxes with a handle and antennae.
'The sentencing of the Trees is the
concluding act in a highly complex investigation into a global criminal
network, which over a ten-year period turned-over up to £80 million.
'Thousands of false substance
detectors were produced and sold putting both the users and the people they
were bought to protect in grave danger.
'The demise of these individuals
sends a strong warning to anyone else who believes they can make criminal
capital abroad while trading off the good name of British business.'
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