Who stole all the cheese? The inside story of the boom in luxury food heists

Who would steal 22 tonnes of posh cheese, or £37,000 of smoked salmon? A rise in fraudulent orders for luxury foodstuffs has rattled the UK industry, leaving artisan producers with unpaid bills and a truckload of questions… One day in October 2024, Chris Swales, 54, a smoked-salmon producer with a confident demeanour and a stubbled jaw, stood at the gates of an industrial estate in east London staking out the units. There were teenagers loitering about, knackered cars, XL Bullies; e