A Golders Green businessman accused of trying to ship material which could be used to make weapons to Iran has been cleared.

Gholamreza Semsarilar, 64, was alleged to have flouted an embargo on the unlicensed export of carbon fibre outside the EU in August 2009.

Prosecutors claimed he had attempted to pass off the cargo as parts for tennis rackets in a bid to export two tonnes of it to the rogue Islamic state via his Tottenham-based business.

The charge was brought after the shipment was stopped on its way out of the UK.

Semsarilar, from Brookland Rise, was accused of failing to declare the cargo was being sent out of the EU to Dubai, for which a licence is required.

He told customs officials the goods were man-made fibres for use in items such as tennis rackets, jurors heard on Friday (March 30) at Southwark Crown Court.

Exporting carbon fibre out of the UK without a licence - whether to Iran or any other country - is against the law.

But a jury at Southwark Crown Court cleared Semsarilar of being “knowingly concerned” in the illegal exportation and cleared him of any wrong doing.