Bungalow-bug man's big profits

Bungalow-bug man's big profits

Devices usually seen in James Bond films were made in his bungalow

From the understated dormer bungalow he shared with his mother, Umesh Bharakada produced an array of gadgets usually found in James Bond films.

The 37-year-old fashioned bugging devices to be hidden in everyday objects such as three-pin plug adaptors, phone sockets and calculators.

From Syston in Leicester, he sold them across the internet to other suppliers, private investigators and detective agencies earning about £40,000 a year profit.

Bharakada even paraded his illicit talents by driving a Rolls-Royce car with the number plate A15 BUG.

Some of them were the size of your little fingernail

Clive Corrie, Radiocommunications Agency

But his firm called Leicester Surveillance Ltd was tracked down by the Radiocommunications Agency, part of the Department for Trade and Industry.

One of their investigators, Clive Corrie, told BBC News Online the trail led to Bharakada's bungalow after firms retailing the bugging equipment said he was their supplier.

"He said he didn't have any formal qualifications but you could see he had put a lot research into this.

Umesh Bharakada said he did not know what he was doing was illegal

"He had managed to adapt existing circuits and produce his own brand of goods.

"Some of them were the size of your little fingernail.

"Some were built into household devices like three-pin plug adaptors and some built into a phone adaptor - these record phone conversations as well as conversations from the room they are in.

"They take their power from where they plug into to take away the need for batteries."

He said the devices being made were the sort of listening tools that might be used by the police or security services.

Air safety 'degraded'

Nothing close to what Bharakada was making would be legally sold on the high street.

"The majority of the ones he was making were operating on a band of frequencies that are allocated for the Civil Aviation Authority for use by aircraft and they had potential to cause interference."

Umesh Bharakada's number plate spelt out his illicit trade

That meant that safety levels of aircraft could have been "degraded" if the bugs were being used nearby.

The most powerful bugs, and therefore the most dangerous to aircraft, were tracking devices which could be attached to cars to allow pursuers to follow them.

Bharakada told Leicester Magistrates' Court that he was not aware he was breaking the law under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949.

However, he pleaded guilty on Friday to supplying, using and offering for sale the equipment between January and August of last year.

The judge said he could have been jailed but told him to pay a £4,000 fine with £4,000 costs.

Bharakada's equipment was also taken, which was estimated by Mr Corrie to be worth £20,000.