Thieves with a nose for it fine cheese have performed a massive cheddar ripoff London.
Neal’s Yard Dairy said a scammer posing as a wholesaler for a major French retailer made off with 48,488 pounds of award-winning cheddar worth $390,000 before the company realized it had been defrauded and reported the theft Monday.
“The high monetary value of these cheeses likely made them a particular target for the thieves,” Neal’s Yard Dairy, a distributor, wholesaler and retailer of British artisan cheese, said in a statement.
Detectives from Scotland Yard and international authorities are looking for the perpetrators.
Almost 1,000 wheels of cloth-wrapped cheese from three makers have gone missing: Hafod Welsh organic cheddar, Westcombe cheddar and Pitchfork cheddar.
The dairy sells a slice of Hafod cheddar for $16.70 for 9.5 ounces.
Tom Calver, director of Westcombe Dairy, said a lot of work went into making the cheese which is aged for 12 to 18 months.
“We are devastated,” Calver said. “For that to be stolen… it’s absolutely horrible.”
Neal’s Yard Dairy has asked international cheese traders to be on the lookout for the stolen cheese, especially in 22 and 52 pound blocks.
It says it has paid all three cheesemakers in full, in line with its ethos of supporting small, independent businesses developing the UK cheese sector.