A suspicious wife sparked a High Street bomb scare after attaching a tracking device to her husband’s sports car.

Sutton High Street was evacuated and cordons put in place around William Sachiti’s Lexus SC430 after he walked into Sutton police station on Sunday afternoon to say he feared a cigarette packet-sized box with two magnets fitted to his car could be an explosive device.

The police bomb squad was scrambled at 4.08pm and other emergency services put on high alert, with residents told to stay away from the cordons for their own safety.

But police investigating the incident discovered Mr Sachiti’s wife Dr Diletta Bianchini, a specialist oncologist at Royal Marsden Hospital, in Sutton, had arranged to have a private investigator track her husband after she had become suspicious of his behaviour.

The flashing device, the size of a cigarette box, attached on the fuel tank of Mr Sachiti’s £40,000 custom car was then identified as a GPS tracker and the emergency services told to stand down.

Yesterday his wife Dr Bianchini, 35, said: “I’m just so sorry it happened. It was a huge mistake and I was out of my mind.”

Mr Sachiti, from the Drive, Banstead, said he had been concerned because some of his work involved security and anti-fraud work with banks.

He feared it could be hackers pursuing him.

Mr Sachiti added: “When I first saw the device it was after I had my car washed.

“It was in Morrisons car park. At first I didn’t know what to do.

“I called a friend and they were concerned it could be something dangerous.

“So I went straight to the police station.”

He said he was concerned third parties like private investigators could use such devices to track people without their knowledge – sparking major incidents like the bomb scare in the process.

Mr Sachiti, an entrepreneur who has appeared on Dragon’s Den, said: “[It] was the wife who hired someone to follow me as she was concerned about my new ambiguous work hours.

“She did not realise they would put a device under my car and thought that they would only follow me and take pictures to confirm my whereabouts.

“She may well have thought I’m having an affair, but I’m not.

“My wife has always been that sort of person who has wanted to know where I am.”

His appearance on Dragon’s Den in 2009 was to ask for money to invest in his Clever Bin, a solar powered street bin, complete with an alarm and GPS tracking, which he is aiming to sell to local authorities.

Dragon Peter Jones told him part of his proposal, which was rejected by the Dragons, was “the biggest load of bull I’ve ever heard in the Den”.

One resident who was caught up in the evacuation of Cafe Nero, said: “I was alarmed about what was happening.

“I was told to get off that part of the high street and to stay away from the cordon for my own safety.”

A police spokesman said: “A cordon was put in place at the traffic lights in Cheam Road at the junction with St Nicholas Way to prevent traffic from going along Carshalton Road.

“The bomb disposal squad, London Fire Brigade and London Ambulance Service were called, but cancelled shortly after when police officers were informed by the driver’s wife she had arranged to have a tracking device fitted underneath the rear of her husband’s car.”