Britain’s most famous chef, Jamie Oliver, on Saturday called on cheese lovers to help police catch crooks who stole 22 tonnes of English and Welsh cheddar from a London merchant by posing as a wholesaler.
Jamie Oliver described the theft as a “Insolent heist of shocking proportions”.
He asked his Instagram followers to be on guard in case they heard about “cargoes of very chic cheeses” proposed “for cheap”adding that the stolen cheddar is worth some 300,000 pounds sterling (360,000 euros).
Cheese merchant Neal’s Yard Dairy admitted delivering more than 950 wheels of cheddar to a suspected fraudster posing as a wholesaler acting for a major French retailer, before realizing he had been duped.
The London-based company, one of Britain’s leading distributors and retailers of local artisan cheeses, said it had paid Hafod, Westcombe and Pitchfork, the small producers of the stolen cheese, so they would not have to suffer the scam.
Neal’s Yard Dairy says it is working with the London Metropolitan Police to identify the perpetrators.
It said in a statement Friday that it was investigating “on the theft of a large quantity of cheese” to the London merchant, adding that no arrests had been made so far.
Neal’s Yard Dairy is calling on cheesemakers around the world to contact it if they suspect they have been sold the stolen cheese, particularly 10 and 24 kg wheels of cheddar wrapped in cloth with labels removed.
