Fraudsters allegedly absconded with truckles of artisan cheddar worth about $390,000 from one of the UK’s most famous cheese stores.
The fraudsters, “posing as a legitimate wholesale distributor for a major French retailer,” ordered over 950 wheels of the clothbound Hafod, Westcombe and Pitchfork cheddar from London-based Neal’s Yard Dairy, according to a Friday statement from the dairy store.
Neal’s Yard Dairy reportedly delivered the approximately 48,500-pounds of cheddar before realizing the wholesale distributor was a fake. The news of the alleged fraud was “difficult … to share,” Neal’s Yard Dairy said.
“Despite the significant financial blow, we have honoured our commitment to our small-scale suppliers and paid all three artisan cheesemakers in full,” the cheese vendor added. (RELATED: Six Arrested, Three At Large, For Allegedly Executing US Neighbor’s Largest Gold Heist, Authorities Say)
The dairy store is “working with law enforcement authorities to identify the perpetrators of this fraud.” It also called on all cheese lovers to look out for “clothbound Cheddars in a [22-pound] or [52-pound] format with the tags detached” and alert the store if they find the food items.
A 300-gram wedge of Hafod cheddar sells for £12.90 (about $16.72), BBC News reported.
“The artisan cheese world is a place where trust is deeply embedded in all transactions,” Patrick Holden, owner of the farm which makes Hafod cheddar, told the BBC. “It’s a world where one’s word is one’s bond.
“It might have caused the company a setback, but the degree of trust that exists within our small industry as a whole is due in no small part to the ethos of Neal’s Yard Dairy’s founders,” he continued.
A 250-gram wedge of Pitchfork goes for £11 (about $14.26), while a wedge of Westcombe with a similar weight costs £7.15 (about $9.27), according to the BBC.
“The process of making that cheese started almost three years ago, when we planted seeds for the animals’ feed,” Westcombe Dairy’s Tom Calver told the BBC. “The amount of work that’s gone into nurturing the cows, emphasising best farming practice and transforming the milk one batch at a time to produce the best possible cheese is beyond estimation.
“And for that to be stolen … it’s absolutely terrible.”
This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
