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, it was claimed yesterday.
Two mothers found metal fragments in meals they were feeding their babies, prompting a nationwide recall to protect other children, prosecutors said.
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, along with a threat. The powder was tested and found to be harmless.
Prosecutor Julian Christopher, QC, said Wright then put metal shards into baby food jars and placed them on supermarket shelves in Rochdale and Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire.
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, of Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, denies four charges of blackmail and two of contaminating food ‘with menaces’ between May 2018 and February this year. The trial continues.