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Neal’s Yard Dairy falls victim to £300,000 Cheddar heist
London-based cheesemonger Neal’s Yard Dairy has shared that it was duped out of 22 tonnes of Cheddar, with the premium cheese believed to have a street value of £300,000.
The dairy, which was founded in 1979, was defrauded out of more than 950 wheels of clothbound Cheddar, in 10 kilogram and 24kg formats. The Cheddar stolen was Hafod, Westcombe and Pitchfork. A 250 gram portion of the latter, which is produced in Somerset, retails at the cheesemonger for £11.
In an Instagram post from Neal’s Yard Dairy, the company shared: “The theft involved a fraudulent buyer posing as a legitimate wholesale distributor for a major French retailer.”
The cheese had been delivered before it became clear that the buyer was not who they claimed to be.
“Despite the significant financial blow, we have honoured our commitment to our small-scale suppliers and paid all three artisan cheesemakers in full,” it continued. “We are currently working with law enforcement authorities to identify the perpetrators of this fraud. In the meantime, we would like to put out a call to everyone within our esteemed community of cheesemongers around the world.”
The Metropolitan Police has confirmed that the “theft of a large quantity of cheese” was reported last week (Monday 21 October), and that “enquiries are ongoing into the circumstances”.
Among those to have publicised the incident in the hopes that the missing truckles will be tracked down is celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who shared an Instagram video to inform his 10.5 million followers:
View this post on Instagram
In the video, Oliver said that people should keep an eye out for “lorryloads of very posh cheese”, but warned that it was possible that the stolen Cheddar might have been sliced and/or grated, thus making it harder to identify.
Neal’s Yard Dairy has said that if anyone finds clothbound Cheddars with the tags removed, they should contact info@nealsyarddairy.co.uk, and this information will then be passed on to the police.
It isn’t just high-value cheese which can seemingly disappear – at the beginning of this year it was revealed that one of Paris’ most famous restaurants had lost 83 bottles of wine, valued at a staggering £1.5 million.
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