2007 Tesco blackmail campaign
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| Date | May 2007 – July 2007 |
|---|---|
| Charges | Blackmail, three counts; communicating a bomb hoax, two counts |
| Convictions | Phil McHugh |
The 2007 Tesco blackmail campaign was an extortion attempt against the British supermarket chain Tesco.[1][2][3][4]
In May 2007, a series of letters threatening to contaminate food in Tesco stores were sent to the company's offices in Dundee.[1][2][3][4] The blackmailer asked for £100,000.[1] This did not succeed so the blackmailer demanded executives transfer £200,000 into his bank account or he would put caustic soda in yoghurt sold in the store.[1][2]
The letters were signed "Arbuthnot, the sign is the spider" and had dead spiders taped to them.[1][2] Some of them had text composed of letters cut out of a magazine and demanded that Tesco respond via an advertisement in the personal column in The Times.[1][2] Tesco did not respond.[1][2]
July threats
In July, hoax bomb warnings were sent to 76 Tesco supermarkets.[1][2] They warned that bombs would go off on Saturday, 14 July or "Black Saturday".[1][2]
14 Tesco branches closed, including those in Clitheroe, Grimsby, Pontefract, Market Harborough, Ashby de la Zouch, Bury St Edmunds, Hucknall, Hereford, Ledbury and Glasgow.[1][2] The closures cost Tesco £1.4 million.[1][2][3]
After the threats the letter writer wrote to Tesco executives again demanding £200 a day and an overall figure of £1 million, which would have taken the blackmailer 13 years to amass the total amount.[1][2][3]