🔗 Share this article

Organized crime groups are reportedly purchasing legitimate transport companies to masquerade as authentic drivers and systematically steal valuable shipments, based on new findings.

Proof has emerged indicating that multiple transport enterprises were acquired using decedent individuals' personal details, enabling perpetrators to create fraudulent business entities.

Elaborate Deception Scheme

One transport firm was subsequently hired as a subcontractor by an unaware UK logistics company. Manufacturers then loaded one of the subcontractor's vehicles with merchandise that later disappeared completely.

Alison, who operates a Midlands-based haulage company that was victimized by the fraudulent contractors, characterized the circumstances as "unbelievable" that "criminal groups can infiltrate businesses so blatantly".

"Consumers need to care because it impacts your finances," commented John Redfern, previously a safety manager for a large retail chain.

Rising Freight Theft Figures

This audacious tactic represents just one of numerous methods perpetrators are targeting transport companies that transport commercial stock and additional supplies across the nation, with cargo criminal activity in the UK increasing to £111 million last year from £68 million in 2023.

Documented video demonstrates perpetrators raiding lorries during deliveries, breaking into transport while stopped in congestion, cutting locks and entering depots, and taking complete containers packed with merchandise.

Operator Accounts

Operators, who frequently must pause and sleep during night hours in their cabs, have reported waking to discover the curtained sides of their lorries slashed by criminals attempting to reach the contents within, with consignments of designer clothing, beverages and devices among the most common targets.

Coordinated Response

Police agencies have stated that cargo crime is becoming "increasingly sophisticated, increasingly coordinated" and emphasized that police forces need to work with the sector to address the problem.

Fraud targeting hauliers - encompassing perpetrators using bogus haulage companies - is increasing in the UK, based on official sources.

"The sector is under attack," states Richard Smith, executive director of a major transport association.

Complex Investigation

This fraud operation appears to follow a methodology previously identified in continental Europe, where "authentic transport companies on the brink of insolvency" are acquired by coordinated criminal groups who accept several shipments "and then disappear".

Following the victimization of Alison's firm, handling personnel told her that authorities were additionally investigating comparable crimes in other regions of the UK.

Specific Incident

The haulage business, which moves substantial amounts of pounds around the nation each year, had contracted out to a smaller haulage company for a assignment earlier this year.

"Their insurance was in place, their business licence was in place," she explains. "The situation appeared promising." The lorry came at the manufacturing company, filling machinery loaded it with DIY items and the lorry departed, she states.

However unknown to Alison and the producers, the lorry had been using fraudulent number plates. It disappeared with the cargo valued at £75,000.

"Initial awareness we had about it was the destination company contacted us and said, 'where's our load disappeared to?'" the owner says. She attempted to call the contractor, but the phone had been disconnected.

Personal Fraud Component

So who had appropriated the merchandise? Investigators traced a convoluted trail to try to establish the answer, including a deceased man's personal information, a unknown Eastern European female and a £150,000 high-end automobile.

The company Alison hired was named Zus Transport. A thirty days prior to the theft, it had been sold by its previous owners - with no suggestion they were participating in any wrongdoing.

Investigation revealed that the acquisition was funded by a bank transfer from a company controlled by a UK-based Eastern European lorry driver named Ionut Calin, who used his middle name Robert.

Researchers found a group of multiple transport companies, comprising Zus Transport, seemingly acquired by Mr Calin this year.

However the individual had passed away in November 2024, verified with official records. This was several months before his financial details had been used to acquire multiple of the companies and his identity used to establish three of them at government business registries.

Further Examination

There is zero basis to suspect he was involved in illegal activity, and numerous people on online platforms paid tribute to him as a decent person who assisted others in the industry.

The previous proprietors of multiple of the transport businesses indicated they had interacted not with the deceased individual, but with a individual called "the pseudonym".

Investigators located him by investigating the director of Zus Transport named in government records, a Eastern European female. Information about her is limited, but a phone number for her was located. When checked in communication platforms, it displayed a account picture of a young female, with a alternative name, in a high-end automobile.

The account picture assisted in recognizing her as a family member of Mr Calin, and the spouse of a man named Benjamin Mustata. Mr Mustata and his spouse had been photographed for a image when taking delivery of a high-end automobile from a retailer in April, a seven days after the incident affecting the business owner's company.

Confrontation

When shown images from online platforms of Mr Mustata to a previous proprietor of one of the haulage companies, he identified him as "the pseudonym" - the individual he had met face-to-face to discuss the transfer of the company.

A contact number