Man jailed for 15 months for supermarket blackmail plot
A Birmingham man who demanded £3m from a supermarket in a blackmail plot inspired by a Clint Eastwood movie has been jailed.
Mark Hazel, 39, was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court to 15 months imprisonment for sending the cash demand in a letter signed "Scorpio" - a name used by a serial killer in the 1971 film Dirty Harry.
Hazel, of Deakin Road, Erdington, sent a hand-written note to his local Co-op store in July last year, threatening to "kill and maim" three people in the shop if the money was not paid.
He wrote: "It will be my greatest pleasure to select at random three people in your store, then to kill and maim the people if my demands of three million pounds are not met.
"I will kill anybody in your store, whether it is staff, guards, anybody shopping in the store, if my demands are not met."
He ended the letter: "If you are not willing to pay or heavens above, get the fuzz involved, then there will be no second chances. Scorpio."
Forensic analysis found Hazel's thumbprint on the envelope and he was charged with blackmail after an investigation by the West Midlands Serious and Organised Crime Unit.
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