Scammers swipe 22 tons of cheddar in UK cheese 'heist'

LONDON: British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver on Saturday urged cheese lovers to help police catch scammers who conned a London dairy out of 22 tons of English and Welsh Cheddar.

Oliver described the theft as a "brazen heist of shocking proportions".

He told followers on Instagram to be alert if they heard anything about "lorry loads of very posh cheese" being offered "for cheap", adding that the cheddar would have originally been worth around £300,000 ($388,000).

The appeal comes after the Neal's Yard Dairy said it delivered more than 950 wheels of cheddar to the alleged fraudster posing as a wholesale distributor for a major French retailer before realising it 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 would not have to bear the cost.

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

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

"Enquiries are ongoing into the circumstances," it said, adding that no arrests had been made so far.

The dairy is calling on to cheesemongers around the world to contact them if they suspect they have been sold the stolen cheese, particularly clothbound cheddars in a 10kg or 24kg (22 pound or 52 pound) format with the tags detached.