Fraudsters hit UK wine merchants

A gang claiming to represent a range of British wine merchants has been placing orders with producers across Europe. The fraudsters have been targeting wine growers via email or telephone calls, using the identity of UK suppliers such as Heritage Wine.

The orders appear to be between 2,000-6,000 bottles of wine and in excess of 100,000 bottles have been delivered by this particular fraud to addresses in Tottenham, north London. The identity of wine merchants in the south west of England appear to be favoured.

The Great Western Wine Company along with Heritage Wines has recently been hit by the gang. Julie Ticehurst from Great Western explains: “We had a call from someone impersonating one of our restaurant customers, placing an order for a large quantity of Champagne (£10,000), supposedly for a function over the weekend, because one of their other suppliers had let them down.

“The value of the order was extremely high, even for this particular customer, so we called the restaurant to check the details, to be told they had no functions and didn’t need more Champagne.”

“This chap knew a lot about our customer, and about us – the manager’s name, the Champagne they buy from us (which isn’t widely available), delivery details, and so.”

Heritage Wine, who have suffered a similar scam, is liaising closely with DS Paul Cheadle at the Metropolitan Police, who is in charge of investigating this case and he has confirmed: “The perpertrators are involved in organised crime and are still operating despite Police attention and initial arrests. This is an European wide wine fraud.”

For any fraudulent orders or enquiries from France about fraudulent orders please contact DS Cheadle at paul.cheadle@met.police.uk

Patrick Schmitt 13.08.08