🔗 Share this article

Criminal syndicates are reportedly acquiring established transport companies to masquerade as authentic drivers and methodically steal valuable shipments, according to new investigations.

Evidence has emerged indicating that several transport operations were acquired using decedent persons' identifying details, enabling perpetrators to create bogus business entities.

Elaborate Fraud Operation

A particular transport company was later hired as a third-party provider by an unaware UK transport company. Manufacturers then loaded one of the contractor's lorries with products that subsequently disappeared entirely.

Alison, who operates a central England haulage company that was targeted by the fraudulent contractors, characterized the situation as "incredible" that "criminal groups can target businesses so openly".

"Consumers need to be concerned because it affects your wallet," commented an industry expert, previously a safety manager for a major supermarket.

Increasing Cargo Theft Statistics

Such brazen tactic represents just one of multiple ways perpetrators are targeting haulage companies that deliver retail stock and other supplies across the nation, with freight criminal activity in the UK rising to £111 million last year from £68 million in 2023.

Recorded footage demonstrates perpetrators looting trucks during deliveries, breaking into vehicles while stationary in congestion, removing locks and breaching depots, and taking entire trailers packed with goods.

Operator Accounts

Drivers, who often need to stop and rest overnight in their vehicles, have reported awakening to discover the covered panels of their trucks cut by thieves attempting to access the contents within, with shipments of branded clothing, beverages and electronics among the most frequent objectives.

Coordinated Action

Law enforcement agencies have stated that cargo crime is becoming "more advanced, more coordinated" and stressed that law enforcement units need to collaborate with the industry to address the problem.

Fraud targeting hauliers - encompassing criminals using bogus transport businesses - is increasing in the UK, based on authoritative reports.

"Our sector is under attack," states an industry representative, executive officer of a major road haulage association.

Intricate Investigation

This fraud scheme seems to follow a methodology previously identified in continental Europe, where "authentic haulage companies on the brink of insolvency" are purchased by coordinated crime syndicates who accept several shipments "before disappear".

After the targeting of the business owner's firm, investigating officers informed her that authorities were additionally investigating similar crimes in other areas of the UK.

Specific Case

Alison's transport business, which moves millions of currency throughout the nation each year, had contracted out to a smaller haulage company for a job earlier this year.

"Their coverage was in place, their operators' permit was in place," she explains. "It looked great." The vehicle came at the production company, filling machinery loaded it with DIY items and the lorry drove off, she states.

However unknown to Alison and the manufacturers, the lorry had been using fake number plates. It vanished with the cargo valued at £75,000.

"The first awareness we had about it was the receiving company contacted us and said, 'where's our shipment gone" Alison says. She attempted to call the contractor, but the number had been deactivated.

Personal Theft Element

So who had taken the goods? Investigators traced a convoluted path to try to establish the solution, including a dead individual's identity, a mystery Eastern European woman and a £150,000 luxury vehicle.

The business Alison contracted was named Zus Transport. A thirty days before the theft, it had been sold by its previous proprietors - with zero indication they were participating in any improper activity.

Research discovered that the acquisition was funded by a bank transfer from a company owned by a UK-based Eastern European lorry driver named Ionut Calin, who used his second name Robert.

Researchers identified a network of five haulage companies, comprising Zus Transport, seemingly purchased by the individual this year.

However the individual had passed away in November 2024, verified with official records. This was months before his financial details had been utilized to acquire several of the businesses and his name employed to establish several of them at official business registries.

Further Investigation

There is zero basis to suspect he was participating in illegal activity, and many people on online platforms expressed respect to him as a good man who helped others in the industry.

The previous proprietors of several of the transport companies indicated they had interacted not with the deceased individual, but with a man known as "Benny".

Researchers located him by investigating the registered officer of Zus Transport listed in government records, a Romanian female. Data about her is limited, but a contact number for her was located. When searched in messaging applications, it showed a profile picture of a youthful female, with a different identity, in a luxury vehicle.

The account image assisted in identifying her as a relative of Mr Calin, and the wife of a man called Benjamin Mustata. The individual and his spouse had been photographed for a image when collecting a high-end vehicle from a retailer in April, a week after the incident affecting the business owner's company.

Confrontation

When presented photographs from social media of the individual to a previous owner of one of the transport businesses, he recognized him as "Benny" - the individual he had met face-to-face to negotiate the sale of the company.

A phone details