Farmer Found Guilty of Blackmail Plot That Involved Adding Metal Shards to Baby Food
A farmer has been found guilty of adding metal shards to baby food in a £1.5 million (USD$1.9 million) plot to blackmail UK supermarket chain Tesco.
Nigel Wright was convicted on August 20, after being arrested in late February in what Hertfordshire Constabulary said was “the largest blackmail inquiry ever conducted in the UK.”
Wright was captured on CCTV placing one of the contaminated jars on the shelf of a Tesco supermarket in Lockerbie, Scotland, in November 2019.
The BBC reported that the court was told that two mothers were just moments away from feeding their infants the food when they spotted the shards.
More than 40,000 jars of the product were recalled, the BBC reported.
Police said the “major investigation” involved three police forces, the National Crime Agency, as well as support from specialist government departments including the Food Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland, Public Health England, Public Health Scotland, and Police Scotland.
Wright was found guilty of three counts of blackmail and two counts of product contamination. He will be sentenced on September 28. Credit: Hertfordshire Constabulary via Storyful
