Knife-wielding Burwell cheese and burger thief jailed
PC Ryan Parker, from Cambridgeshire Police, said: "Sparks went to the Co-op that day armed with a knife, knowing he was going to steal, and then use the knife to intimidate and scare anyone who stood in his way."This happened in a busy store in broad daylight and will have a lasting impact on the victims involved."We hope this sentence shows that knife crime and violent, threatening behaviour is not tolerated in Cambridgeshire."
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Detectives hunting the gang behind the Grate Cheese Robbery, in which 22 tonnes of the world's finest cloth-bound artisan cheddar was stolen in an elaborate fraud, have arrested six middle-aged men as they stay on the scent of the suspects. A crew of con artists allegedly spent four months convincing Neal's Yard Dairy, the London wholesaler and retailer of artisan cheeses, that they were a well-known French cheese-buyer for a major distributor and supermarket, before making off with £300,000 worth of cloth-bound raw-milk two truckloads they took away 950 wheels of cheese in October last year, including 12 tonnes of Pitchfork Cheddar, nine tonnes of Westcombe Cheddar and two tonnes of Hafod Cheddar. When Neal's Yard weren't paid after delivery they quickly established that they had been conned and went to the police. 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At the end of September, a haulier organised by the alleged fraudsters collected half the cheese from Neal's Yard Dairy's warehouse in Bermondsey, southeast London. The second delivery was made by a haulier arranged by Neal's Yard itself, who was instructed to drop the cheese off at a warehouse in north London. The haulier who carried out the delivery reported that the warehouse was 'not a typical food warehouse'. Neal's Yard was supposed to be paid within a week of the deliveries being made, which is typical for the food industry, but by the start of October they had heard nothing from the supposed they contacted the legitimate distributor, who they believed had made the order, they quickly established that they had been conned. The cheeses could conceivably be stored for up to 18 months, at the right temperature, without deterioration but as soon as they are cut they will dry and need to be eaten. The cheese producers believe the thieves may have tried to smuggle the cheese into the Middle East or Russia, away from the watchful gaze of the international artisan cheesemaking community, to avoid detection. News of the fraud, first dubbed the 'grate cheese robbery' by Jamie Oliver, made headlines around the world and shone a spotlight on the world of expensive artisan produce. Ticehurst believes the public were initially shocked that someone would value cheese highly enough to organise an elaborate deception to steal it, but he thinks their produce should be regarded in the same way as fine wines or sports Cheddar is made by hand in small batches and costs about £1,200 per 25kg truckle. After its first year of production it won Best British Cheese at the World Cheese Awards in 2019 and was judged the fourth best cheese on the be considered traditional Somerset clothbound cheddar, it must be made by hand from raw cow's milk, with calf rennet and local starter cultures used in the process.
