Suffolk smokehouse hit with £37,000 loss after salmon shipment scam.
Chapel and Swan Smokehouse in Exning, Suffolk, England has reported a major financial hit after falling victim to a scam that led the company to ship £37,000 ($48,000) worth of smoked salmon to an unauthorised address.
Director Chris Swales, believed he was fulfilling an order for a French supermarket, but instead his products were delivered to a car garage in east London under the guise of a legitimate order.
Swales explained that the transaction began routinely, with seemingly authentic communications from supposed representatives of the French supermarket. However, suspicions arose when the buyers, instead of paying upfront as agreed, requested a second order and suggested they would settle both invoices together. This delay prompted Swales to contact the main switchboard of the supermarket in question, where he found out that the buyers he was dealing with did not exist.
The financial impact of the scam has been severe for the family-run business. “We’re only insured for theft from our units and our van,” Swales told the BBC, adding that “the actual loss to the business is about £28,500.” The incident has drained resources, leaving the smokehouse “really, really short of cash.”
Swales personally visited the delivery location in east London to verify the situation and was confronted with what he described as a “really shady” site filled with guard dogs and rundown shipping containers. “At that point, I thought, ‘That’s clearly where the salmon has gone,’” he recounted, noting that the setup appeared more like a covert operation than a legitimate storage site.
In addition to the financial blow, Swales raised concerns about his brand’s reputation and the health risks associated with the mishandling of his product. “Smoked salmon is a high-risk product. If it’s not stored properly or defrosted correctly, it can make people seriously ill,” he said. He expressed particular concern that his branded product, now in the hands of black-market sellers, could end up abroad without any oversight or quality control.
Swales suspects the stolen salmon may be linked to a wider criminal network that traffics high-end food products internationally, bypassing quality and safety standards. “Someone has to be turning a blind eye to this,” he speculated, highlighting his belief that such operations require logistical and perhaps official oversight to function on this scale.
This scam mirrors a recent incident in which £300,000 worth of cheddar was stolen from London’s Neal’s Yard Dairy under similar circumstances, suggesting that high-value food products may increasingly be targeted by organised fraud. Swales noted, “The food business is riddled with low-end crookery, but this is completely next level. I was absolutely staggered.”
The case underscores the challenges and risks faced by small food producers as they seek to expand distribution beyond local markets and navigate the complexities of international trade.
