🔗 Share this article

Organized crime groups are reportedly purchasing established haulage businesses to pose as authentic drivers and methodically steal valuable cargo, based on new findings.

Proof has surfaced indicating that multiple haulage enterprises were purchased using decedent persons' personal details, allowing criminals to create fraudulent commercial structures.

Elaborate Deception Operation

A particular transport firm was later contracted as a third-party provider by an unsuspecting UK logistics business. Producers then filled one of the subcontractor's vehicles with products that subsequently vanished entirely.

Alison, who operates a central England transport company that was victimized by the fraudulent subcontractors, described the situation as "incredible" that "organized elements can infiltrate businesses so openly".

"You should care because it affects your finances," commented John Redfern, previously a safety director for a major supermarket.

Rising Cargo Theft Statistics

Such audacious method represents just one of multiple ways perpetrators are focusing on haulage firms that deliver retail stock and other supplies throughout the nation, with cargo criminal activity in the UK increasing to £111m last year from £68 million in 2023.

Documented video shows perpetrators looting lorries during distribution, forcing entry into transport while stationary in traffic, cutting security devices and breaching warehouses, and stealing complete trailers packed with goods.

Operator Accounts

Operators, who often must pause and sleep overnight in their vehicles, have reported awakening to discover the curtained sides of their trucks slashed by thieves attempting to reach the contents within, with shipments of designer clothing, alcohol and electronics among the most frequent targets.

Organized Response

Police authorities have indicated that cargo criminal activity is becoming "increasingly advanced, increasingly coordinated" and emphasized that police units need to collaborate with the sector to tackle the problem.

Deception affecting hauliers - encompassing perpetrators using fraudulent haulage companies - is rising in the UK, according to authoritative sources.

"The sector is being targeted," states Richard Smith, managing director of a prominent road haulage association.

Complex Examination

This fraud scheme appears to follow a methodology earlier identified in continental Europe, where "authentic transport businesses on the brink of bankruptcy" are purchased by coordinated criminal groups who accept multiple shipments "and then vanish".

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

Specific Case

Alison's transport business, which transports millions of currency throughout the nation each year, had contracted out to a less established transport firm for a assignment previously this year.

"The coverage was active, their business permit was valid," she explains. "It appeared promising." The vehicle arrived at the production facility, loading machinery filled it with DIY products and the lorry departed, she reports.

However unknown to Alison and the manufacturers, the lorry had been using fraudulent number plates. It vanished with the shipment worth at £75,000.

"Initial indication we had about it was the destination company contacted us and said, 'where is our load disappeared to?'" Alison recalls. She tried to contact the subcontractor, but the phone had been disconnected.

Identity Fraud Element

So who had taken the goods? Investigators traced a complex path to try to determine the answer, including a deceased man's personal information, a unknown Romanian female and a £150,000 luxury vehicle.

The company the owner contracted was named Zus Transport. A month prior to the incident, it had been transferred by its former owners - with no suggestion they were participating in any wrongdoing.

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

Investigators found a group of multiple transport companies, including 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 information had been used to purchase several of the businesses and his identity employed to register three of them at government business records.

Additional Investigation

Exists no basis to believe he was participating in crime, and numerous people on social media paid tribute to him as a decent person who helped others in the sector.

The previous owners of several of the transport companies indicated they had interacted not with the deceased individual, but with a individual called "Benny".

Researchers located him by investigating the director of Zus Transport named in official records, a Eastern European woman. Data about her is scarce, but a contact details for her was located. When searched in messaging platforms, it displayed a profile image of a youthful woman, with a different identity, in a luxury vehicle.

The profile image helped in identifying her as a family member of the deceased individual, and the spouse of a man called Benjamin Mustata. Mr Mustata and his spouse had been photographed for a photo when taking delivery of a high-end vehicle from a dealership in April, a week following 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 companies, he recognized him as "Benny" - the man he had encountered face-to-face to negotiate the sale of the company.

A contact details