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Julia Quenzler
Mr Wright claimed to be a part of a gaggle of disgruntled dairy farmers who had been underpaid by Tesco, the Previous Bailey heard
A sheep farmer mentioned jars of baby meals laced with steel have been in Tesco shops in a blackmail plot, a courtroom heard.
Nigel Wright is accused of sending letters and emails, signed “Man Brush”, to the grocery store large.
Mr Wright posed as a disgruntled dairy farmer who had been underpaid by Tesco and demanded 100 bitcoin, value about £700,000 on the time, a jury on the Previous Bailey was advised.
He denies two counts of contaminating items and 4 counts of blackmail.
Mr Wright, 45, from Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, tried to extort the cryptocurrency between Might 2018 and February this yr for revealing which shops he had planted the jars in, prosecutors mentioned.
This sum demanded rose to 200 bitcoin, value about £1.four million in February, the courtroom heard.
- Extra tales from Lincolnshire
He claimed to be a part of a gaggle of dairy farmers calling themselves “Man Brush and the Dairy Pirates” who believed they’d been underpaid by Tesco.
Prosecutor Julian Christopher QC advised the jury: “The defendant hoped to make himself wealthy via blackmail.”
Two prospects had discovered slivers of steel in baby meals jars as they fed their youngsters in November and December 2019.
One jar was purchased in Rochdale, the opposite in Lockerbie.
There isn’t a proof some other merchandise have been truly contaminated, the courtroom was advised.
Wright additionally claimed salmonella and chemical substances had been injected into cans and threatened to proceed poisoning Tesco merchandise if cost was not made, Mr Christopher mentioned.
‘Pressured by travellers’
A draft of messages despatched to Tesco was discovered on his laptop computer together with pictures of meals tins, jars of baby meals and slivers of steel, the courtroom heard
In one of many counts of blackmail, Wright allegedly threatened to kill a driver with whom he had had a street rage altercation except he paid him bitcoin value £150,000.
Mr Wright admits numerous components of the marketing campaign however claims he was pressured to take action by travellers who had demanded he give them £1m and he was performing in concern of his life.
Mr Christopher advised the jury it must decide whether or not the story of being threatened by travellers was true.
The trial continues.
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