Man found guilty of tainting baby food with metal shards to extort almost $2Mil from Tesco
A British farmer added metal shards to baby food in a sick plot to extort nearly $2 million from the supermarket chain Tesco.
Nigel Wright, 45, of Lincolnshire was found guilty of three counts of blackmail and two charges of contaminating goods after he tainted the infant food and sent dozens of emails and letters to the food giant demanding money, the BBC reported.
A UK court heard the horrifying stories of two mothers who were just moments away from feeding their babies when they noticed fragments of metal in the food, the outlet said.
“I gave my son a couple of spoonfuls and noticed something shiny,” one mother, Morven Smith, told the court. “It was horrendous. I felt sick I was so shocked.”
When cops raided Wright’s sheep farm they discovered photographs of tainted baby food and draft blackmail notes on his laptop, the BBC said.
One note read: “Imagine a baby’s mouth cut open and blood pouring out, or the inside of their bellies cut and bleeding. You pay, you save them.”
The scheme began in May 2018 and ended this past February. Wright will be sentenced on Sept. 28.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/08/20/man-found-guilty-of-tainting-baby-food-to-blackmail-tesco/
Photo Credit: Hertfordshire Constabulary