The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Sheep farmer found guilty over Tesco baby food blackmail plot
A sheep farmer has been found guilty of planting baby food laced with shards of metal in stores as part of a lengthy blackmail campaign against Tesco.
Nigel Wright, 45, hatched a plot to get rich by deliberately contaminating jars of Heinz baby food between May 2018 and February 2020, the Old Bailey heard.
He sent dozens of letters and emails to the supermarket giant in a bid to extort £1.4 million in bitcoin, jurors were told.
Wright claimed to be part of a cohort of farmers angry at the low price they were paid for their milk.
Tesco was forced to issue a product recall when a mother from Lockerbie discovered pieces of metal in a jar of Heinz sweet and sour chicken baby food.
Wright was caught on CCTV placing the tampered jar on a Tesco shelf before leaving with flowers for his primary school teacher wife, a bottle of wine, and more jars of baby food.
A second mother later came forward in Rochdale to say she too had discovered metal while feeding her ninemonth-old daughter.
When Wright was tracked down to his family home outside Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, police found photographs of contaminated baby food on his laptop.
They also recovered £100,000 in bitcoin which had been sent by undercover officers during the probe.
Giving evidence, Wright admitted planting one contaminated jar in the Lockerbie store but denied tampering with stock in Rochdale.
He claimed he was forced into it by Travellers who had threatened his family.
A jury found Wright guilty of two counts of contaminating goods and three counts of blackmail for demanding cryptocurrency from Tesco in exchange for revealing where the contaminated food had been placed.
Mr Justice Warby listed the case for sentence on September 28.