Police officers may have to be a little more restrained about restraining prisoners, because of a looming shortage of handcuffs.

The company that makes cuffs for the majority of Britain's police forces is closing down this week, prompting something of a short-term supply problem.

Hiatt & Company, which has been making handcuffs, leg-irons, manacles and other gruesome devices to shackle humans for more than 200 years, will shut its Birmingham workshops within days.

“It's not going to be a problem, it already is a problem,” one police source told The Times. “I called the other day to buy in some stock and was told: "We can't do your order, we're closing'. It was the first I'd heard of it.”

Another police procurement official said: “I'm thinking of looking on eBay if I can't get any cuffs in the next day or two.”

While police officers may be lamenting the demise of Hiatt, human rights campaigners will be celebrating. There is a dark side to the company that has led protesters to gather outside its offices in Great Barr on more than one occasion.

Hiatt first marketed “Prisoner Handcuffs to the Trade” in 1780, but it was also making and supplying chains and “nigger collars” to slave owners and traders. In recent years handcuffs made in Birmingham have been used to shackle inmates of the controversial US internment camp at Guantanamo Bay.

Clive Stafford Smith, of Reprieve, the legal representative for many of the Guantanamo inmates with British links, has reported seeing dozens of detainees whose wrists were restrained by Hiatt handcuffs.

Moazzam Begg, a Briton who was held without trial by the United States in Bagram airbase, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay for more than four years, said he saw Hiatt restraints in use in both locations.

Mr Begg, who is from Birmingham, said in one newspaper interview that the handcuffs were part of what was known as a “three-piece suit”. He said: “A pair of handcuffs was attached to a waist chain, which was in turn attached to another chain, which led from the waist to the ankle and was then attached to a leg iron.”

Amnesty International has also criticised Hiatt, claiming that implements made by it have been used by despotic regimes around the world in the torture and incarceration of prisoners.

Hiatt refused to say how many pairs of handcuffs it makes for police forces in Britain but confirmed it was by far the biggest supplier.

British police prefer rigid handcuffs or speedcuffs, which are hinged in the middle and said in the Hiatt catalogue to offer “greater subject control”. The more traditional chain-linked handcuffs have been supplied by Hiatt to law enforcement agencies in other parts of the world.

The Handcuffs Shop, an online retailer, describes the company's products as magnificent and adds: “Hiatts have by far the most comprehensive range of handcuffs in the world.”

Production will now be shifted to a factory in the United States where the handcuffs will be made by Hiatt of New Hampshire. Last year it began making cuffs in a range of colours - pink, purple, green, blue, yellow and orange.

BAE Systems, Hiatt's parent company, confirmed that the British business was closing within a fortnight and that 15 jobs would be lost. A BAE spokesman said: “There shouldn't be any problems with supplies to British police. This isn't a snap decision and there are contingency plans in place.”

The Association of Chief Police Officers said purchase of handcuffs was a matter for each individual force. A spokesman added: “We don't anticipate any long-term problems.”

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