Fraudsters steal 22 tons of cheddar in British cheese heist

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver on Saturday called on cheese lovers to help police catch fraudsters who defrauded a London dairy of 22 tonnes of English and Welsh Cheddar.

Oliver described the theft as a “brazen robbery of shocking proportions”.

He told his followers on Instagram to be alert if they heard about “truckloads of very fancy cheese” being offered “for cheap”, adding that the cheddar would originally have been worth around £300,000 (€388,000).

The call comes after Neal’s Yard Dairy said it supplied more than 950 wheels of cheddar to the alleged fraudster who posed as a wholesale distributor for a major French retailer before realizing he had been duped.

The company, a leading UK distributor and retailer of British artisan cheese, said it had still paid Hafod, Westcombe and Pitchfork, the small-scale producers of the stolen cheese, so they did not have to bear the costs.

It added that it was working with London’s Metropolitan Police to identify the perpetrators.

The Met said in a statement on Friday that it was investigating a “report of the theft of a large quantity of cheese” from the London outlet.

“Investigations are ongoing into the circumstances,” the report said, adding that no arrests have been made so far.

The dairy is calling on cheese sellers around the world to contact them if they suspect the stolen cheese has been sold to them, especially linen-bound cheddars weighing 10kg or 24kg (22lb or 52lb) with the tags off.