Under his bed was 85,000 in cash and an emergency services radio scanner tuned into police channels.

The tags include a glass-encased microchip with a unique identification number that cannot be altered but can be read by a low-frequency radio scanner.

Its products now include equipment for radio amateurs, pilots, maritime applications, land mobile professional applications and radio scanner enthusiasts.

Conversation on many early cordless telephones could be picked up with a simple radio scanner or sometimes even a domestic radio.

Radio scanners were also heavily used to listen in on emergency services and storm spotters so as to determine where the most active or dangerous weather was located.