Is Russia behind the 22-tonne cheese heist?

J amie Oliver, the celebrity chef and restaurateur, called it the Grate Cheese Robbery. Scotland Yard is hunting a fraudster who posed as a buyer for a French supermarket chain before stealing £300,000 of the world’s best cheddar from Neal’s Yard, an artisan dairy in London. The heist started with an email from a criminal with a deep knowledge of cheese.

Sarah Stewart, managing director and co-owner of Neal’s Yard Dairy , a wholesaler and retailer of luxury cheeses, received the request in July from a person who wanted to order 22 tonnes of Hafod Welsh. “It was an unusually large order, but the person looked legitimate.” The fraudster said he wanted 950 cheddar truckles, uncut wheels of cheese, which he was buying on behalf of.