Sorry - I don't have a source for this...
A MOBILE phone jamming scam is exposed by the Record today.
Businessman Ronnie McGuire is flooding Scotland with high-tech phone jammers that are illegal to use.
He is importing the gadgets from Taiwan to sell to hotels, restaurants, bars and bed and breakfasts.
The devices emit radio waves which wipe out the signal to mobile phones, rendering them useless.
Mobile phone users have no idea their signal has been sabotaged.
But callers are forced to use expensive hotel phone lines or call boxes.
McGuire said: "I've sold quite a few to hotels and bed and breakfasts.
"It helps with the internal phone system because people use it and the coin box a lot more.
"It comes up on their phone `no service' and people think there's no service in that area.
But it's best not to tell anyone you've got it because they might not be too happy."
McGuire promotes the gadgets on glossy leaflets, which state: "Harassed by mobile phones or hotel phone system not being used?
"Then look no further. Purchase a mobile phone jammer for your hotel, restaurant and bar. Small and discrete."
The Tower Hotel in Crieff is one business that has snapped up a jammer.
And McGuire brags other businesses want the jammers to stop staff calling and texting from mobile phones during working hours.
He said: "I sold one to a friend at the Tower Hotel who did it for two reasons.
"He was annoyed by people in his dining room with the phone ringing all the time and he'd put in a new phone system and wanted some payback on it.
"A hairdresser bought two the other day because his staff are texting each other all the time."
McGuire, of Crieff, was only too happy to sell the Daily Record a jammer and battery pack for £75.
We posed as the owner of a bed and breakfast and arranged to meet him in a public car park in Crieff.
But McGuire suggested we do business at the Tower Hotel.
Our reporter told him we had tried to buy a jammer from Global Gadget UK. He said: "They won't sell you them. I looked them up the other day to see what the competition was like.
"The Government give contracts to companies and say don't supply them to anyone else."
The device emits a radio signal on the same frequency used for mobile phones which wipes out the link between the phone and the mast.
McGuire said: "All you do is turn them on.
"You might have to muck around to get it right. In the hotel ceilings is a solution.
"The guy in the Tower Hotel stays in one of the rooms in the middle level and it does the whole hotel."
The small print on McGuire's literature states: "A licence to operate may be required in country of use."
But licences are not available in the UK and McGuire failed to warn us of the penalties we faced if we were caught using the prohibited equipment. He said: "You're meant to have a licence for them," and later added, "But these things are not enforced to any great deal."
He insisted none of his customers had fallen foul of the law. He said: "It's been over a year since I started and I've not had any problems. The people I've spoken to are quite happy."
McGuire has his own firm, Electron Electrical Engineering Services, but flogs the gadgets as a lucrative sideline.
He even encouraged our reporter to act as a middleman and help sell the jammers, which he buys in bulk at 50 a time. He said: "I've got 20 left. If you know anyone else who wants one, I'd be obliged if you let them know about me.
"In fact, I could sell them to you for £75 and you could sell them on for £100."
The Radiocommunications Agency, which is part of the Department of Trade and Industry, said: "It is illegal to install or use these devices."
Yesterday, McGuire insisted he had done nothing wrong and did not fear reprisals from the DTI.
He said: "They mention inciting someone to break the law but where do you stop with that? It's like if I sell a car to someone, I can't be blamed for someone's drink- driving."
"Jammers are illegal to use but there is a place for them. Mobiles are intruding into every aspect of people's lives."
He added: "I'm not a shady dealer or a crook. I think they should be made legal. It's almost like a peace protest."
May these devices spread like clamidia in a Freshman dorm. -
EG
