THIEVES stole more than £1,000 of meat and cheese in a raid on two North Yorkshire food companies.

A camera, two laptops, jewellery, other food and cash were also stolen during the thefts at the Ribblesdale Cheese Company on Upper Wensleydale Business Park in Hawes and The Good Life business next door.

The burglars broke into the two stores between 5.30pm on Saturday and 7.30am on Sunday and stole more than £500 worth of speciality cheeses from Ribblesdale Cheese including 18 blocks of sheep’s milk cheese in a mixture of 2kg and 2.2kg weights, 4kg of blue goat’s cheese and three rounds of superior goat's cheese.

Some of the cheese is marked with batch number D25 and dated April 2009. At The Good Life, about £620 worth of food was stolen including 11 five kilogram blocks of cheddar and Wensleydale cheese labelled as Karron Lodge.

Burgers, steak and kidney pies, chicken nuggets and sausage rolls were also taken as well as 13 large containers of instant coffee, bags and tins of dog food and confectionery.

Police said 50 items of Namaste jewellery including earrings, necklaces and bracelets worth about £500 were also taken.

PC Alan Busby, of Leyburn Safer Neighbourhood Team, said: “The theft is quite unusual and we believe the goods may be destined for resale, either in a shop, door-to-door or car boot sale.”

Anyone who has information should contact police on 0845 6060247.