Sheep farmer tried to extort £1.4m worth of Bitcoin from Tesco by lacing baby food with metal, court hears

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A sheep farmer is accused of trying to extort £1.4m worth of cryptocurrency from Tesco in exchange for revealing in which stores he had planted jars of baby food laced with metal and contaminated products with salmonella.

Nigel Wright claimed to be part of a group of disgruntled diary farmers called “Guy Brush and the Dairy Pirates”, who believed they had been underpaid by the supermarket chain.

The Old Bailey heard on Tuesday that the 45-year-old had bombarded the retailer with letters and emails using the name “Guy Brush” for nearly two years since may 2018.

The Lincolnshire-based farmer allegedly claimed contaminated food had been planted in numerous stores and that he would only reveal where once 200 bitcoin had been paid to him. Two customers found silver in baby food as they fed their children in 2019.

Mr Wright denies two counts of contaminating goods and four counts of blackmail, but admits carrying out various elements of the campaign – claiming he was forced to do so by travellers who had come to his land and demanded he give them £1m.

He claims the group of men threatened to rape his wife and kill him and his two children and that he was acting in fear of his life.

But the prosecution alleges that “over a period of two years from spring 2018, the defendant hoped to make himself rich by means of blackmail”.

Mr Wright was traced to his family home on a farm outside of Market Rasen. Drafts of messages sent to Tesco were found on his laptop, along with photos of tins of food and jars of baby food and slivers of metal.

In November and December 2019, two customers in Rochdale and Lockerbie respectively found slivers of metal in jars of baby food as they fed them to their children, leading Heinz to recall thousands of jars from the retailer.

Mr Wright denies planting the shards of metal in the baby food found in Rochdale.

In the first day of a three-week trial, the court heard that Mr Wright claimed salmonella and other chemicals had been injected into cans from other brands, threatening to continue poisoning Tesco products until the payment was made.

There is no evidence that any other products other than the two jars of metal-spiked baby food discovered were actually contaminated, the Old Bailey heard.

In one of the counts of blackmail, Wright allegedly threatened to kill a driver with whom he had had a road rage altercation unless he paid him bitcoin worth £150,000.

Wright allegedly tracked him down and sent him a letter including a picture of the complainant and his wife with bullet holes and a target superimposed on it, the court heard.

The prosecutor said: “You the jury will have to determine whether his story of being threatened by travellers is true.”

“The prosecution suggest that it changes whenever he is confronted with more evidence which he has to explain, and is completely untrue,” he added.

The trial, which is expected to last three weeks, continues.

Additional reporting by PA