From August 2000 to February 2001, a blackmailer identified by the pseudonym "Sally" threatened the British supermarket chain Tesco with bombing and harming customers if their demands were not met. The blackmailer demanded that Clubcards, modified to allow the withdrawal of cash from ATMs, be left in local newspapers. The attempted extortion started in Bournemouth, England, and led to one of the largest and most secretive operations ever undertaken by Dorset Police.
Several months after the threat first came to light, "Sally" sent out several letter bombs, one of which was received and exploded in the face of the recipient, causing her minor injuries. The Royal Mail intercepted several other letter bombs, which had been held up because insufficient stamps had been put on them. In October 2000, "Sally" threatened to use pipe bombs against Tesco customers and the threat was taken seriously enough that Tesco began the production of the modified Clubcards, but were unable to produce the required number before the deadline set by the blackmailer. In November, "Sally" claimed to have placed a pipe bomb in a garden in the Ferndown area of Dorset, but no bomb was found.
Police eventually mounted a surveillance operation on the postbox to which several of the extortion letters had been traced and identified "Sally" as Robert Edward Dyer. Dyer was arrested in February 2001, more than six months after the extortion attempt began, and was charged with several offences, including nine counts of blackmail and one of common assault; he was found guilty in May 2001. He was sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment on 12 June 2001, later reduced to 12 years on appeal. A number of similar extortion attempts against supermarket chains and other businesses and subsequent attacks on Tesco have since been compared to Dyer's campaign by the media.
Beginnings The campaign began in August 2000, when John Purnell, director of security for Tesco, the United Kingdom's largest supermarket chain, was telephoned by a newsagent in Bournemouth who had discovered a copy of an extortion letter left on his shop's photocopier. The letter demanded that Tesco give away Clubcards, modified for use in cash machines, with a combined value of £200,000 in the Bournemouth Daily Echo.
The letter, dated 22 August 2000, was written as follows [grammar and spelling mistakes have been adjusted]:
Police estimated that if Clubcards capable of withdrawing £1000 were placed in the Bournemouth Echo, which at the time had a circulation of 50,000, then Tesco could lose £50m a day (despite a later understanding that it was not possible to withdraw £1000 in one go). Tesco feared that, if the extortionist was to go on radio and give the pin code, this could have been a huge financial risk. Tesco determined that they could let a handful of the cards be used, before stopping the rest of them. Furthermore, catching "Sally" using an ATM would be a large task – police worked out there were approximately 25,000 ATM sites in the UK and approximately 250 in the conurbation area of Bournemouth. This would not have been an operation that Dorset Police could have carried out on their own.
Initial investigation
The police investigation into the campaign, codenamed Operation Hornbill, was one of the most secretive ever undertaken by Dorset Police and one of the largest in British policing history.
Approximately 100 officers worked on the enquiry, working 24 hours a day. Officers were selected across the whole of the Dorset area. Officers working on the investigation were not allowed to tell their colleagues what they were working on. This was to keep the investigation covert and related to a similar, historic case. In 1990, Rodney Whitchelo attempted to extort £4 million from H. J. Heinz Company by spiking jars of baby food with broken glass and caustic soda. The Metropolitan Police investigation revealed that Whitchelo had recently retired as a London Metropolitan Police detective. Dorset Police always had a concern that "Sally" was a police officer, notably from the terminology that was within the letters, giving the impression that it was legalese or police jargon.
In determining why Tesco was being targeted, police realised that Tesco had received a number of complaints, including civil litigation cases. Tesco stated that a number of employees had been dismissed for misconduct or had left the company with a grudge, potentially making them suspects. Police suspected that whilst "Sally" was an individual, wanting to make money for themselves, this individual may also have been part of a large criminal organisation, such as an anarchist group. It was questioned whether such a group would be attempting to get back at Tesco, or would be using Tesco to highlight their campaign.
Subsequent letters and communication attempt
On 30 August 2000, Tesco received another letter, written to the manager at a Tesco store on Victoria Road in Ferndown. Whilst this letter was identical to the first letter, it was fire-damaged. It was wondered whether "Sally" had attempted to destroy the letter they had posted, after having second thoughts about sending it. This allowed police a potential lead, if they could discover if a postbox fire had occurred. Making enquiries with Royal Mail, police discovered that a fire had been reported in a postbox on Bradpole Road, Bournemouth.
Tesco received a third letter to their store in Ferndown, that was dated 29 August 2000. "Sally" wrote how small bombs had been prepared to be sent to customers homes and that bombs would get bigger if demands were not met.
After receiving the third letter, police did not want to make "Sally" feel they were ignoring the threats. Using an undercover police officer, police placed an advert in the Bournemouth Daily Echo, asking "Sally" to contact them, providing a phone number.
On 6 September 2000, the following ad was placed:
After receiving no response in three weeks, the senior investigating officer, Detective Superintendent Phil James, convened a meeting with other senior officers from across the United Kingdom to assess the threat posed. The meeting included officers from the Metropolitan Police and from the National Kidnap and Extortion Unit.
Bombing and discovery of other devices
During James' meeting, he was informed that a letter bomb had exploded at an address in Ferndown. In a documentary about the investigation in 2009, James said "There was a knock at the door and I was told by one of my officers that in fact, an incendiary device, a firebomb, had just gone off. The atmosphere of the meeting suddenly changed. Clearly there was a risk and the threat was very, very real."
Jean Evans, then aged 70, opened the letter bomb, which exploded in her face. She was taken to hospital with minor injuries – two weeks earlier, Evans had left intensive care at hospital. A bomb disposal team from the British Army was dispatched to the scene. They discovered the remains of a 'very small amount of incendiary composition', which was inside a cassette case in the letter. The device had used a party popper to detonate gunpowder inside the A4/A5 size envelope. Whilst not considered a lethal device, there was the risk that it could have set fire to the address and, as was seen, it had injured Evans.
Immediately after the first letter bomb, Dorset Police alerted Royal Mail to look out for suspicious packages. Within hours of warning Royal Mail, a nearby sorting office called, having located three suspicious packages. The packages had been delayed from being sent because insufficient stamps had been placed on them. Police arrived and evacuated the immediate area before the bomb disposal team arrived. Using a portable X-ray machine to ensure that "Sally" had not made a bigger device, the bomb disposal team scanned the packages, before disarming the parcels by hand.
A further seven of the 'menacing letters' were delivered to the homes of Tesco customers, stating that they had been seen shopping at Tesco, that they had been followed home and that they may be subject to more threats or bombs through the post.
Tesco attempted to reassure their customers, placing signs outside their stores, that read:
During a press conference on 21 September 2000, as part of a wider public warning, then Dorset Police Assistant Chief Constable, Chris Lee said: We're advising members of the public to be extremely vigilant and exercise caution regarding any suspicious or unaccepted packages they receive'."
ACC Lee added: "The reason for singling out the supermarket chain is at this time unclear and our inquiries into any motive are being investigated. Our attempts to make contact with the blackmailer have been unsuccessful".
Following the spate of letter bombs, the Army's bomb disposal team was stationed in Bournemouth—something that only usually happens when political party conferences are held in the town—and placed on stand-by.
Subsequent investigations The police placed two more adverts in the Bournemouth Daily Echo. The first said:
The next advert said:
Although the letters from "Sally" appeared to target Tesco, it appeared a local issue as the letters were sent to a local store in Ferndown, the postbox fire that occurred was in Bournemouth and the demand for clubcards to be placed was in a newspaper in Bournemouth. DSI James assumed that the offender was also local. A specialist unit of geographic profilers were added to the investigation, in order to analyse the crimes that "Sally" had committed in order to work out where they may live. The locations of the crime scenes of the newsagents the letter was found at, the site of the first bombing, and the burned-out postbox were all logged. A computer analysed the locations which produced a focus-area for police. It supported the theory that "Sally" was local to the Bournemouth area. An area profile of approximately a mile squared was created and the geographic profiling team stated the areas where police should focus their enquiries.
Suspects that lived within the catchment zone were placed under surveillance. Suspects included employees with links to people named "Sally" and people with links to the Tesco store in Ferndown. DSI James always believed that "Sally" would be caught through the postbox at Bradpole Road in Bournemouth, which "Sally" had used at the beginning of September and would likely use again. Covert officers put the postbox under surveillance, using officers and a camera.
The October letter had also been traced back to the postbox on Bradpole Road through the times in which the postbox was emptied. A camera covering the area of the postbox had captured "Sally". The footage from the surveillance operation was reviewed, but was deemed as useless, since it was impossible for people seen on the surveillance footage to be identified and further hampered by the poor image quality.
Fallback strategy Whilst surveillance was underway, police asked Tesco to consider a fallback strategy if the bombings were to escalate. This was to consider putting the cards into the Bournemouth Daily Echo that "Sally" had requested. The head of security at Tesco had fears about people being hurt, Tesco's reputation being damaged and the company losing money around the decisions he was agreeing to.
The fallback strategy was similar to a previous case. In 1990, Edgar Pearce, dubbed the "Mardi Gras bomber" by the media, used bombs in an attempt to extort money from Barclays Bank and Sainsbury's supermarkets. Like "Sally", Pearce had also wanted to receive his money through ATMs. However, hundreds of ATMs were placed on around-the-clock surveillance, leading to Pearce's arrest. Tesco's position was that they would not pay any extortionist but would consider their support to a police operation in 'paying money in a controlled fashion'.
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