Pedigree was advised by police to pay limited sums of money to the extortionist, while cash machines were put under surveillance.
Heinz lost millions in sales and eventually offered a £100,000 reward, which the extortionist attempted to collect.
He attended Hackney Secondary Modern, before starting his first job with the Johnson Matthey chemical firm in Hatton Garden.
Then, aged 38, Whitchelo attended a training school for detectives located at the Derbyshire Constabulary headquarters.
These individuals would target large companies, demanding ransom money that was significantly lower than the potential loss of profits resulting from consumers avoiding their products due to fears of tampering.
The challenge for these extortionists lay in collecting the ransom money, as it necessitated their presence at a specific location and time to claim the funds.
[2] Whitchelo finished his policing career with the Criminal Investigation Department at Hackney, having previously worked with the Regional Crime Squad (RCS) in East London.
On the grounds of ill health from suffering with asthma, Whitchelo took early retirement, after 13 years with the Metropolitan Police.
[2] The letter stated that the chemicals were ‘virtually undetectable’ by a pet owner and that’ if payment is not forthcoming from Pedigree Petfoods or Mars Inc., then large numbers of similarly contaminated tins will appear on retailers shelves throughout Great Britain’.
[2] Whitchelo pretended that he was a gang of blackmailers, he explained to Pedigree Petfoods to acknowledge his letter with a coded message in the personal column of The Daily Telegraph.
Police were hopeful that if withdrawals were made in one particular area, that this would further reduce the number of cashpoints, allowing them to conduct a surveillance operation.
[2] Leicestershire Police asked Pedigree Petfoods' to keep the situation a secret, as it was obvious which cans had been tampered with and therefore the public were not at risk.
[2] On 22 March 1989, Whitchelo wrote a letter to the Heinz baby food company, who were based in London.
Within the letter, he stated that for five years, he wanted £100,000 from Heinz and that if they did not deliver on this, he would contaminate their baby food products with caustic soda.
[3] The Metropolitan Police team were told that it appeared a gang, who had been threatening Pedigree Petfoods, were also responsible for the threats towards Heinz.
[2] In another incident, a nine-month-old baby was admitted to hospital having eaten food laced with razor blade fragments.
[3] Officers discovered enough poison in another jar of Heinz’s cauliflower baby food to kill 27 children.
The police decided at this stage, that the banking computer system should be programmed to swallow the card whenever it was used next, perhaps being able to take a fingerprint to identify a suspect.
Heinz faced a massive slump in sales and offered a reward of £100,000 for information leading to the conviction of the blackmailers.
[2]In April 1989, as a result of Whitchelo, Heinz spent £32 million to replace their baby food containers, shrink-wrapping them.
[2] Fleming and Robertson wanted to give their team the impression that Operation Roach, the investigation into the blackmailers, was slowing down.
Two officers who were on the previous investigation team were transferred, with one being told to tell his colleagues he was off on sick leave and the other, at a later stage, to tell them that he was off work due to compassionate reasons.
Officers from Special Branch were brought in to assist with the surveillance, in order for the secrecy of the operation to be maintained.
[2] However, prior to the planned surveillance operation being started, a workman accidentally cut through an electrical cable servicing the Woolwich mainframe computer.
At 12:30 in the morning in Enfield, Middlesex, officers conducting surveillance noticed a person getting out of a car, wearing a motorbike helmet, matching the description they had been given.