THE former tax inspector and charity worker played an extraordinary game of cat and mouse with Tesco and police.

McHugh, 52, had once boasted to friends about how easy it would be to blackmail the organisation.

And last spring he decided to put his plan into action.

At one point, he tried to throw detectives off the scent with a forensic 'red herring' on one of his blackmail letters.

The man who signed his letters "Arbuthnot, the sign is the spider" used what he thought were more sophisticated tactics, planting someone else's hair under the stamp on one of his threatening letters.

It was designed to throw police off his trail because he knew they would subject him to tests for DNA.

McHugh even sent some of his blackmail letters bearing collectors' stamps of the laughing policeman as if poking fun at the detectives he knew would be looking for him.

With his practice of taping dead spiders to his letters, McHugh seemed to be trying to create a calling card for himself.

He applied for a Tuxedo Blue Diamond bank card and was granted one after bank bosses cooperated with police.

Then he contacted Tesco stores, demanding sums of money be paid into the Tuxedo account.

He attempted to withdraw cash from Barclays, Castle Street, Clitheroe around midnight on July 5.

And on July 6, CCTV images showed him attempting to get money from a HSBC cash machine in Castlegate, Clitheroe at around 2.30am.

After the July 14 bomb hoaxes, police decided to lure McHugh into giving himself away by transferring money into the bank account as he had requested.

The first transaction in which he was caught on camera was when he went to HSBC in Clitheroe.

On this occasion, McHugh was careful to keep his face covered.

He wore an industrial mask and had the collars of his jacket turned up.

On four consecutive days in late July last year, McHugh withdrew money from cashpoints in Blackburn, Burnley and Carlisle, and though he took pains to conceal his face, he wore distinctive Wellington boots which helped identify him on CCTV footage.

However, days later when he went to a Lloyds-TSB branch in Bolton, he was not so careful and, for the first time, detectives could see his face.

With his Tuxedo card, McHugh could draw out £200 a day and police were building up a picture of the area where he was operating in.

The net closed in on McHugh following the visit he made to Carlisle on July 23 last year.

He had visited a cashpoint and detectives were immediately notified when he used his card.

They suspected he had strong links with Clitheroe and would be returning either by train or by car.

A team staked out Clitheroe railway station and he was seen getting off a train and arrested on July 23.

They found the Wellingtons and details of the bank account used for the extortion at his home, as well as a book entitled The Black Book of Revenge, which prosecutors said contained tips for carrying out a campaign of extortion.