Cheese fraudsters and the community

It’s sad to come back to the UK after the international whirl that is the World Dairy Summit and to see fraudsters have tricked Neal’s Yard Dairy out of more than 22 tonnes of top-quality British cheddar, or 950 truckles in 10kg and 24kg formats. However, as the company’s blog mentioned, fraud is the most commonly experienced crime in the UK, with an estimated 3.5 million incidents of fraud experienced by adults 18 years of age and over. The four month scam saw the fraudsters pretended to be legitimate wholesalers for a major French retailer. We have all fallen prey to scams and unfortunately, the wholesaler and retailer is no different.

The BBC reports, “The hundreds of truckles of cheese were made up of three artisan cheddars, Hafod Welsh, Westcombe and Pitchfork, which are all award-winning and have a high monetary value. Neal’s Yard Dairy sells Hafod Welsh for £12.90 for a 300g piece, while Westcombe costs £7.15 for 250g and Pitchfork is priced at £11 for 250g.”

Here’s where it gets nice. Neal’s Yard still paid the cheese makers so the dairies would not have to bear the costs themselves – a significant cost for the smaller scale producers, and no small sum to cover itself by the retailer. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has posted about it on his Instagram, asking people to keep an eye out for posh stolen cheeses at too-cheap prices. Offers of financial help and support, along with cheese orders, have flooded into Neal’s Yard Dairy from as far afield as the US and Germany, the Times reports. Sarah Stewart, the managing director and co-owner, told the Times, “Clearly British people love their cheese, but we have had a lot of really incredible people getting in touch – it seems like it’s gone international.”

Patrick Holden, owner of the where Hafod cheddar is made, said on the Neal’s Yard website: “It might sound naïve to fall victim to a scam, but the truth is that the artisan cheese world is a place where trust is deeply embedded in all transactions. The breach of trust by this fraudulent customer is a violation of the atmosphere of good faith and respect that all of Neal’s Yard Dairy’s trading relationships have personified over the years. 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.”

So, wherever the stolen cheese ends up (foodservice, Russia, etc), the larger picture is that cheese making is a nice industry filled with nice people who love their jobs and their products. We support each other in dairy, because that’s how we roll. I know where I’m getting my next cheeseboard from.

• Suzanne Christiansen, editor, Dairy Industries International.
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