Chef begs thieves to ‘do the right thing’ after stealing £25,000 worth of pies

A Michelin-starred chef is mourning the days of work spent baking 2,500 pies stolen along with his van.

The week’s worth of stock, weighing ‘nearly a tonne’, was due to be driven to Tommy Banks’ pop-up stall at York Christmas Market on Monday.

But the van had vanished from Barker Business Park in Melmerby, North Yorkshire, when staff arrived to pick it up that morning.

‘We’ve been robbed’, Mr Banks said of the Sunday night robbery in a video released on Instagram.

‘Out there somewhere is our van, and nearly a tonne of pies with my name written on them, somewhere in the north of England.’

He added: ‘It’s kind of sad because that’s a lot of meat and a lot of flour and eggs, and a lot of work, so much work. It’s like £25,000 worth of stock in the back.’

Mr Banks, who runs award-winning restaurants, later told BBC News: ‘The team are very gutted because it’s days and days of work gone.

‘Vans get replaced on insurance but all that work and all those ingredients, just nicked.’

Now they are ‘absolutely scrambling’ to make more steak and ale pies, turkey and cranberry pies and butternut squash pies to last them the rest of the week.

But Mr Banks maintains a sliver of hope that the pies will be returned or rehomed instead of ditched.

Appealing to the thieves on Instagram, he said: ‘If you see this video, I know the pies are gone and I know you’ve nicked my van and we’re probably not getting it back.

‘But you can’t do anything with these pies because they’ve got my name written all over them, so can you drop them off somewhere?

‘Drop them off at a community centre of somewhere, and at least someone could eat them, someone who needs them could eat them.

‘I know you’re a criminal, but but maybe just do something nice because it’s Christmas, and maybe we could feed a few thousand people with these pies than you’ve stolen. Just do the right thing.’

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