London, March 5 (IANS): A former detective who investigated a plot to blow up a Manchester shopping centre said lives were put at risk by the failure to prosecute the perpetrator in Britain.

Retired Detective Allan Donoghue said The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was wrong not to charge Abid Naseer with plotting a terrorist attack, BBC reported on Thursday.

Naseer, 28, was found guilty by a US court on Wednesday and accused of leading an Al Qaeda cell in Manchester.

US prosecutors argued that he was also a part of wider conspiracy to carry out bombings in Denmark and America in an attempt to repeat the devastation of the September 9/11 attacks.

The CPS said,"the evidence was admissible and was very limited".

Naseer had been arrested in Manchester in 2009 during a series of raids by counter terrorism police as part of "Operation Pathway".

But the CPS decided not to charge the Pakistani national and after an attempt to deport him failed, he was allowed back on to the streets.

Donoghue, who was also the deputy commander of Operation Pathway, said,"The whole command team believed that there was sufficient evidence".

He said the decision not to prosecute had potentially endangered the public, adding, "Naseer was both a threat and a risk. He had the potential to kill people".

Other serving and former police officers, who worked on the investigation have also claimed the CPS decision was flawed.