🔗 Share this article

Criminal syndicates are allegedly acquiring legitimate haulage companies to pose as legitimate truckers and systematically steal high-value shipments, based on recent investigations.

Proof has surfaced indicating that multiple transport enterprises were purchased using deceased individuals' identifying details, enabling criminals to create bogus business entities.

Sophisticated Fraud Operation

One transport company was subsequently contracted as a third-party provider by an unaware UK transport company. Producers then filled one of the subcontractor's lorries with merchandise that subsequently vanished entirely.

Alison, who runs a Midlands-based haulage enterprise that was targeted by the bogus subcontractors, described the situation as "incredible" that "criminal elements can target companies so blatantly".

"You need to care because it affects your wallet," stated John Redfern, previously a security manager for a large retail chain.

Increasing Freight Theft Statistics

Such brazen method represents just one of multiple ways perpetrators are targeting haulage companies that deliver commercial stock and other materials throughout the country, with cargo theft in the UK increasing to £111 million last year from £68m in 2023.

Recorded video shows perpetrators raiding trucks during distribution, breaking into transport while stopped in congestion, cutting security devices and breaching depots, and stealing entire trailers packed with goods.

Driver Experiences

Operators, who frequently need to stop and sleep during night hours in their vehicles, have reported waking to find the covered sides of their trucks slashed by thieves attempting to reach the cargo within, with consignments of branded apparel, alcohol and electronics among the particularly frequent objectives.

Organized Response

Law enforcement agencies have indicated that cargo criminal activity is becoming "more advanced, increasingly coordinated" and stressed that law enforcement forces need to collaborate with the industry to tackle the problem.

Deception targeting transport companies - including perpetrators using fraudulent transport companies - is rising in the UK, based on authoritative reports.

"Our industry is under attack," says an industry representative, managing officer of a prominent road haulage organization.

Complex Investigation

This deception operation appears to follow a methodology earlier identified in continental Europe, where "authentic transport companies on the verge of insolvency" are purchased by organized crime groups who accept multiple shipments "before disappear".

Following the victimization of Alison's firm, investigating personnel told her that authorities were also investigating similar incidents in different areas of the UK.

Detailed Case

Alison's transport firm, which moves substantial amounts of pounds throughout the nation each year, had contracted out to a smaller haulage company for a job earlier this year.

"The coverage was in place, their business licence was valid," she explains. "It looked great." The lorry came at the manufacturing facility, filling equipment loaded it with DIY products and the lorry drove off, she states.

But unknown to Alison and the manufacturers, the vehicle had been using fraudulent registration plates. It vanished with the cargo worth at £75,000.

"Initial awareness we had regarding it was the receiving business called us and said, 'where's our shipment gone" the owner recalls. She attempted to call the subcontractor, but the phone had been disconnected.

Identity Theft Component

Therefore who had taken the goods? Researchers followed a complex path to attempt to determine the answer, involving a deceased individual's identity, a mystery Romanian woman and a £150,000 luxury automobile.

The business Alison hired was called Zus Transport. A thirty days before the incident, it had been sold by its former proprietors - with zero indication they were participating in any wrongdoing.

Research discovered that the acquisition was funded by a electronic payment from a company owned by a UK-based Romanian transport operator named Ionut Calin, who went by his second name Robert.

Investigators found a network of five haulage companies, including Zus Transport, seemingly acquired by Mr Calin this year.

However the individual had died in November 2024, verified with government records. This was months prior to his financial details had been used to purchase several of the businesses and his identity used to register three of them at government company records.

Additional Examination

Exists zero reason to believe he was involved in illegal activity, and many people on social media paid tribute to him as a good man who assisted others in the sector.

The former owners of several of the haulage companies stated they had interacted not with Mr Calin, but with a individual known as "the pseudonym".

Researchers located him by examining the registered officer of Zus Transport named in official records, a Eastern European woman. Data about her is scarce, but a contact details for her was found. When searched in communication platforms, it displayed a profile image of a young female, with a different name, in a high-end vehicle.

The account image assisted in recognizing her as a relative of Mr Calin, and the spouse of a individual named Benjamin Mustata. Mr Mustata and his wife had been photographed for a image when collecting a luxury vehicle from a retailer in April, a seven days after the theft affecting Alison's company.

Confrontation

When presented photographs from online platforms of Mr Mustata to a former owner of one of the haulage businesses, he identified him as "Benny" - the individual he had encountered face-to-face to negotiate the transfer of the company.

A contact number