Trade Me clamps down on potential bomb ingredients

Moves to make it harder to find potential bomb ingredients online will do little to stop people from tracking them down elsewhere, a former teen explosives-maker says.

The comments come amid controversy sparked by a Wellington teen who allegedly used a stolen identity to sell bomb-making chemicals on the online auction site Trade Me.

Although it is legal to sell the chemicals, experts warned the quantities were too small for agricultural use and the chemicals could be used to manufacture explosives.

The site on Saturday shut down the account of 19-year-old Victoria University student Jason Frame, who had used a friend's name to place listings without his knowledge, but a second user still has about 40 similar listings on the site.

Trade Me said today it would clamp down on the terms used to sell the chemicals, the result of a meeting this morning with the Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma).

"If you advertise with anything like rocket, propellant, explosive or bomb, then those definitely will not be permitted and we will be very active in removing them," Trade Me trust and safety manager Chris Budge said.

The site would implement search terms allowing staff to assess whether an auction needed to be stopped or amended, he said.

"Hopefully those alerts will be up and running by the end of the week, irrespective of any other decision."

The remaining chemical seller would today be asked to change the wording of their listings.

Erma hazardous substances general manager Andrea Eng said she was concerned the listings could promote the manufacture of explosives by people who were neither qualified nor competent, causing harm to themselves or others.

"We have asked Trade Me to remove the listings and are following up with the appropriate enforcement agencies who we understand are already aware of the situation."

But a former teen explosives-maker said the move would do little to deter people from making their own explosives.

The Auckland University science graduate, who asked not to be named, developed an interest in making his own fireworks and explosives in his early teens, buying the necessary chemicals from gardening centres and pharmacies.

There were few stumbling blocks if someone wanted to do the same, he said.

"If they had a plausible back story and they couldn't get it at the first place they tried, they could always get it at the next place," he told NZPA.

"Being on Trade Me makes it a bit more accessible for people who aren't really looking that hard, but if you know what you're looking for then it's not hard to find those kinds of things. You don't even need to use the internet."

Lab equipment which could be used to manufacture drugs or explosives was also readily available on Trade Me, he said.

"If there's a market for it, then people will sell it and people will buy it."

Figures show the number of amateur bomb-makers brought to police attention has remained relatively low over the past decade.

Police investigated 17 reported cases of manufacturing or possessing explosives in the decade to 2008, with nine of those cases being resolved, figures released to Statistics New Zealand show.

A police spokesman would not comment on the matter.

- NZPA