2007 Tesco blackmail campaign

In May 2007 a series of letters threatening to contaminate food in Tesco stores unless he was paid £100,000 were sent to the company's offices in Dundee.[1][2][3][4] 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 seventy-six hoax bomb warnings were sent to Tesco supermarkets.[1][2] They warned that bombs would go off on Saturday 14 July or "Black Saturday".[1][2]

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 £1.4m.[1][2][3]

After the threats the letter writer wrote to Tesco executives again demanding £200 a day and an overall figure of £1m.[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 was arrested in his home on Milton Avenue, Clitheroe.[1][2]

The suspect was Phil McHugh, a former tax inspector and unemployed charity worker who had gambling debts of £37,000.[1][2][5]

He pleaded guilty to three specimen charges of blackmail and two charges of communicating a bomb hoax.[5]

• Tesco blackmail plot
• Tesco bomb campaign