Farmer ‘ blackmailed Tesco for £1.5m after spiking baby food jars’
A FARMER demanded £1.5million in a blackmail plot against Tesco after contaminating baby food with metal shards, it was claimed yesterday.
Two mothers found metal fragments in meals they were feeding to their babies, prompting a nationwide recall to protect other children, prosecutors said.
Farmer Nigel Wright, 45, allegedly demanded up to £1.5million to tell the supermarket which products he had contaminated.
The married father- of- two threatened to use a form of cyanide to poison other food products on the supermarket shelves, or to inject tinned food with the food poisoning bug salmonella, it was claimed.
His Old Bailey trial heard Wright was a small scale sheep farmer who had wanted to get rich from the blackmail scheme, and had demanded to be paid in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
He allegedly sent letters and emails to Tesco, saying: ‘Any injuries or fatalities sustained by your customers are your fault. Acting quickly will save your customers.’
Wright, who lived in a mobile home with his wife, a primary school teacher, and children, aged ten and 12, initially claimed to have injected tinned fruit with salmonella in 2018, the court heard.
He is then accused of threatening to contaminate other products with prussic acid, a form of cyanide. A letter containing white powder was sent to the Tesco head office in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, with a threatening letter. The powder was tested and found to be harmless.
Prosecutor Julian Christopher
QC said Wright had then put shards of metal into jars of baby food and placed the jars on to supermarket shelves in Rochdale and in Lockerbie in Scotland.
Letters were sent to 16 different Tesco stores, signed by ‘ Guy Brush and the Dairy Pirates’ – an apparent reference to a dispute between supermarkets and dairy farmers over unfair milk pricing.
Wright said the contaminated jars were marked with a ‘pirate sign’ but refused to say which products were affected or which stores he had targeted, the jury heard. His demands rose from 100 Bitcoin – now worth around £750,000 – to 200 Bitcoin, around £1.5million.
Morven Smith, a mother, found two shards of metal in a jar of Heinz Sweet and Sour Chicken she was feeding to her ten-month-old son in December 2019. They appeared to be ‘snapped off parts of a craft knife blade’, the court heard. She had bought the jar from a Tesco in Lockerbie and an urgent product recall was issued.
A second mother, Harprett Kaur Singh, saw tiny pieces of ‘shredded metal’ in two jars of food she had opened for her nine-monthold daughter, Heinz Cheese and Tomato Pasta Stars and the same brand’s Sunday Chicken Dinner.
She had bought the food from a Tesco store in Rochdale. Some 42,000 jars were recalled but no further metal shards were found.
In January a further 140,000 packs of baby food were removed from shelves after Wright allegedly told Tesco he had left more tampered jars in shops. No contaminated packs were found.
Undercover police paid Bitcoin worth around £100,000 into his account earlier this year, but recovered it after he was arrested in February. Wright, of Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, told police he had been forced into the plot by travellers who threatened his family if he did not pay them £1million.
Mr Christopher said the prosecution believed this was ‘concocted and untrue’. Photographs of jars of baby food and pieces of metal were found on his laptop.
He is also accused of blackmailing a motorist following a road rage incident, and threatening to kill the man’s family.
Wright denies four charges of blackmail and two of contaminating food ‘with menaces’ between May 2018 and February this year. The trial continues.
‘Concocted and untrue’