LONDON – Thieves with a nose for fine cheese have pulled off a massive cheddar fraud in London.

Neal’s Yard Dairy said a fraudster posing as a wholesale distributor for a major French retailer made off with 22 metric tonnes (48,488 pounds) of award-winning cheddar worth 300,000 pounds ($390,000) before the company -realized that he was cheated and reported. Monday’s theft.

“The high monetary value of these cheeses likely made them a particular target for thieves,” Neal’s Yard Dairy, a distributor, wholesaler and retailer of British artisanal cheeses, said in a statement.

Detectives from Scotland Yard and international authorities are searching for the culprits.

Almost 1,000 cheese wheels wrapped in cloth from three manufacturers have gone missing: Hafod Welsh Organic Cheddar, Westcombe Cheddar and Pitchfork Cheddar.

The dairy sells a piece of Hafod cheddar for £12.90 ($16.70) for 270 grams (9.5 ounces).

(Photo by Fernando Gutierrez-Juarez/picture alliance via Getty Images)

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Tom Calver, director of Westcombe Dairy, said a lot of work had gone into making the cheese aged between 12 and 18 months.

“We are devastated,” Calver said. “For that to be stolen … it’s absolutely terrible.”

Neal’s Yard Dairy asked international cheese makers to track down the stolen cheese, particularly in 10-kilogram (22-pound) and 24-kilogram (52-pound) blocks.

It says it has paid all three cheesemakers in full, in line with its ethos of supporting small, independent businesses that grow the UK cheese sector.