Don Muang Kwaeng Court on Wednesday acquitted Jackson Electronics (Thailand) Co on charges of fraud in the sale of bogus bomb and drug detectors to the military for 10.4 million baht, ruling the firm was only the importer.
Public prosecutors had accused the company of colluding in fraud by giving false information or concealing facts about the GT200 and Alpha 6 bomb detectors.
According to the suit, Jackson Electronics had supplied detectors bought from a UK firm, Comstrac, to the Armed Forces Security Centre in 2007 and 2009.
In the first deal, the firm had sold six detectors, priced at 1.3 million baht each, for 7.8 million baht to the security centre on Sept 14, 2007. On Jan 13, 2009, it supplied two more bomb detectors, costing 2.6 million.
During the procurement, the firm had demonstrated use of the devices and provided a catalogue detailing the specifications and stating they could detect both bombs and drugs. However, the devices were merely empty plastic tubes without electronic chips to detect explosives, as claimed.
A Jackson Electronics executive officer, Yang Sia Siang, a Taiwanese national, was at Don Muang Kwaeng Court to hear the judgement. He was accompanied by lawyer Khomsan Srivanit.
The court found that the firm had only imported the products from the UK, and the prosecution had not produced any evidence confirming the firm was involved in preparing the catalogue giving the false information about them.
The court ruled to acquit the firm of the charges.
Mr Khomsan said the firm was not the manufacturer of the devices and the court ruled to acquit it.
A UK court had also previously acquitted Comstrac Co, which sold the devices, on all charges, he said.