| 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] The blackmailer asked for £100,000. 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]
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]
Police decided to lure the blackmailer into giving away their identity by transferring money into a bank account as demanded.[1] [2]
On four consecutive dates in July 2007, the suspect withdrew money from cashpoints in Blackburn, Bolton, Burnley and Carlisle.[1] [2] Although he concealed his face, he wore distinctive Wellington boots that helped police track him on CCTV.[1] [2] On 23 July 2007, the suspect, Phil Mchugh was arrested in his home on Milton Avenue, Clitheroe. McHugh was a former tax inspector and unemployed charity worker who had gambling debts of £37,000.[5] McHugh pleaded guilty to three specimen charges of blackmail and two charges of communicating a bomb hoax and in January 2008, he was sentenced to six years imprisonment.