It’s emerged that the 52 year old former charity worker who attempted to extort money from the Tesco Supermarket chain last summer was an avid online gambler. 

Philip McHugh from Clitheroe in Lancashire was jailed for six years at St. Albans Crown Court last week after he pleaded guilty to three counts of blackmail and two of carrying hoax bomb threats.

In July of last year 14 different Tesco stores throughout the UK closed as a security precaution after McHugh’s threats increased.

He sent 76 letters threatening to bomb stores and contaminate products if the Hertfordshire-based firm refused to comply with his demands for money.

The campaign started last May when McHugh sent a series of letters to Tesco offices in Dundee, threatening to contaminate food unless he was paid £100,000.
 
When this failed McHugh, who was addicted to online gambling and had debts of £37,000, sent a series of increasingly threatening letters to Tesco's headquarters.

The closures cost the chain an estimated £1.4m in lost revenue.
 
McHugh wrote to the executives of the supermarket chain following the bomb hoaxes demanding £200 a day, and an overall figure of £1m.

He wrote: "I'm absolutely desperate and blood will flow if you do not co-operate."

"And I WILL destroy your business and others will pick up your customers."

McHugh set up a bank account to receive the money, but it only allowed him to withdraw £200 a day.
 
At that rate it would have taken more than 13 years to withdraw the full sum.

He was eventually spotted on CCTV and arrested.

McHugh suffered severe depression in the months leading up to his campaign, and told a psychiatrist he saw the blackmail attempt as a "last gamble" at getting his life back on track.