Looking around it easily goes back to the earlier part of the decade.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/20...365742538.html
Dick Smith food extortionist refused bail
ROCKHAMPTON, Queensland
March 8 2002
A man threatened to contaminate Dick Smith food products with rat poison as
part of a $100,000 extortion bid, a court was told today.
Graham Andrew Cooper, 31, of no fixed address, faced the Rockhampton
Magistrates Court charged with attempting to extort $100,000 from
Australian Skeptics Association and stalking its executive officer Barry
Williams.
The court was told that Cooper emailed threats to the Australian Skeptics
Association, of which businessman Dick Smith is patron, after they refused
to pay him for a challenge on their website in which people are tested for
psychic powers.