French retailers E.Leclerc and Match caught up in UK supplier scam

A second French supermarket has been caught up in a UK scam after a fraudulent buyer, claiming to supply E. Leclerc, conned Neal’s Yard Dairy of £300,000-worth of cheddar.

The London-based artisan Cheese retailer last weekend revealed it had lost 22 tonnes of high-value cheddar, worth over £300k, in a “sophisticated fraud”.

A buyer posing as a “legitimate” wholesale distributor for a French retailer – understood to be E.Leclerc – stole the cheese Neal’s Yard had delivered to them without paying.

The stolen consignment was made up of 950 clothbound artisan cheddars, including Hafod Welsh Organic Cheddar, Westcombe Cheddar, and Pitchfork Cheddar. 

Neal’s Yard described the fraud as “deceptively convincing”, with the perpetrators impersonating a reputable distributor well known within the European cheese industry. The complexity of the operation “made it difficult to detect the fraud until it was too late”, it said.

And in the wake of the revelations, a second business – Suffolk-based artisan salmon smokehouse Chapel & Swan – revealed it too had been defrauded in similar circumstances by a second French supermarket chain.

Chapel & Swan lost £37,500 worth of smoked salmon over the summer to a person purporting to supply Carrefour-owned supermarket chain Match, owner Chris Swales confirmed. He believes the fraud was orchestrated by organised crime groups, while both suppliers believe their products are likely to have been exported following the fraud.

Read more: Neal’s Yard fraud proves small suppliers are at huge risk

The pair are now calling on SMEs to be vigilant over future scams and urging industry bodies to do more to clamp down on these scams and help protect small food and drink businesses.

“Organised crime is very deep,” Swales told The Grocer. “This is the sort of thing that could have finished the business,” he added. 

“It speaks to the vulnerability of supply chains, and the lackadaisical approach of law enforcement to this type of crime means criminals are aware and will take advantage”.

Neither E.Leclerc nor Match owner Carrefour had responded to The Grocer’s request for comment by the time of publication.

But like UK retailer Iceland – which alerted suppliers of an identity scam in 2018 and still carries an alert on its website – the two French retail giants also carry prominent warnings on their sites.

“Criminals are attempting to place false orders with manufacturers or service providers by imitating the trademarks… and by impersonating E.Leclerc employees or members,” the retailer said on its website, warning suppliers to be “extremely vigilant”.

Match also warned against “people pretending to be employees of the company” to contact suppliers, mainly by email, to place orders with it.