Police seize 'Tesco bomb blackmailer'
Police have seized a man over the a plot to blackmail Tesco with bomb threats.
Unemployed Phillip McHugh, 51, of Clitheroe, Lancashire, was charged with two counts of blackmail and making bomb hoaxes and was due to appear in court today.
The threats on 14 July forced 14 Tescos to close across Britain, including one in Barnes, one in Hertfordshire, and one in Bury St Edmunds.
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Alert: Tesco at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, was among these closed
It brought chaos to thousands of shoppers on one of the busiest weekends of the summer.
Supermarkets across the country received a series of bomb threat letters demanding huge sums of money.
The letter warned they would face "direct actionî if cash was not handed over.
Police ordered evacuations at every store where the letters were sent.
More demands were received the following Monday, but had been delayed in the post.
The threats sparked a major police investigation involving forces nationwide.
They came in the wake in the attempted terror bombings in Glasgow and London. But police have ruled out any link to extremists and today confirmed they believed it was a blackmail attempt.
Hertfordshire police said they arrested the man in Clitheroe on Monday.
A spokeswoman said: "No one else is being sought in relation to this offence."
McHugh was due to appear at Stevenage Magistrates' court today charged with two counts of blackmail and two counts of making bomb hoaxes.
The closures are thought to have cost the company more than £2million in lost sales.
