🔗 Share this article

Criminal syndicates are allegedly acquiring legitimate haulage businesses to masquerade as authentic drivers and systematically appropriate high-value shipments, based on new investigations.

Evidence has surfaced indicating that several haulage operations were purchased using decedent individuals' identifying details, allowing criminals to create bogus commercial structures.

Elaborate Deception Scheme

One haulage firm was later hired as a third-party provider by an unaware UK transport business. Producers then filled one of the contractor's lorries with merchandise that later vanished completely.

Alison, who operates a central England transport company that was victimized by the fraudulent contractors, characterized the situation as "unbelievable" that "organized groups can target businesses so blatantly".

"Consumers should be concerned because it impacts your finances," stated John Redfern, formerly a safety manager for a large supermarket.

Rising Freight Crime Figures

This brazen method constitutes just one of numerous ways criminals are focusing on transport companies that deliver retail inventory and additional supplies throughout the nation, with cargo criminal activity in the UK rising to £111 million last year from £68 million in 2023.

Documented footage demonstrates criminals looting trucks during distribution, breaking into transport while stationary in traffic, cutting security devices and entering depots, and taking complete containers filled with goods.

Operator Experiences

Drivers, who frequently need to pause and sleep during night hours in their vehicles, have described awakening to find the curtained panels of their lorries slashed by thieves attempting to reach the contents within, with consignments of designer apparel, alcohol and devices among the particularly frequent objectives.

Organized Response

Police agencies have stated that freight crime is becoming "increasingly advanced, more coordinated" and emphasized that law enforcement units must to collaborate with the sector to address the problem.

Deception affecting transport companies - encompassing criminals using fraudulent transport companies - is increasing in the UK, according to authoritative reports.

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

Intricate Examination

This fraud operation seems to follow a pattern earlier observed in continental Europe, where "legitimate haulage businesses on the brink of insolvency" are purchased by coordinated crime groups who collect several shipments "and then vanish".

After the targeting of Alison's firm, investigating officers told her that police were also examining similar incidents in other regions of the UK.

Specific Case

The transport firm, which transports substantial amounts of pounds around the nation each year, had contracted out to a less established transport company for a job earlier this year.

"The coverage was in place, their operators' licence was valid," she says. "The situation looked great." The lorry arrived at the manufacturing company, filling equipment loaded it with DIY items and the truck drove off, she states.

But unknown to the business owner and the manufacturers, the vehicle had been using fraudulent registration plates. It vanished with the shipment valued at seventy-five thousand pounds.

"The first indication we had regarding it was the destination business called us and asked, 'where's our shipment disappeared to?'" Alison says. She tried to contact the contractor, but the number had been disconnected.

Identity Theft Element

Therefore who had taken the goods? Investigators followed a complex path to try to establish the solution, involving a deceased individual's identity, a mystery Romanian woman and a £150k luxury vehicle.

The company the owner hired was named Zus Transport. A month before the incident, it had been transferred by its previous proprietors - with no suggestion they were involved in any improper activity.

Research discovered that the takeover was funded by a bank transfer from a company owned by a UK-based Eastern European transport operator called Ionut Calin, who went by his middle name Robert.

Researchers identified a group of multiple haulage businesses, comprising Zus Transport, apparently purchased by the individual this year.

But Mr Calin had passed away in November 2024, confirmed with official sources. This was several months before his bank information had been used to purchase multiple of the companies and his name employed to establish three of them at government business registries.

Additional Examination

There is zero reason to believe he was involved in illegal activity, and numerous people on social media paid tribute to him as a good person who assisted others in the industry.

The former owners of multiple of the haulage businesses stated they had dealt not with Mr Calin, but with a man called "Benny".

Investigators located him by examining the director of Zus Transport named in government documents, a Eastern European woman. Information about her is scarce, but a contact number for her was located. When searched in communication applications, it displayed a profile picture of a young female, with a different name, in a luxury vehicle.

The account picture assisted in identifying her as a relative of the deceased individual, and the spouse of a individual called Benjamin Mustata. The individual and his spouse had been photographed for a photo when collecting a luxury vehicle from a retailer in April, a week after the theft affecting the business owner's company.

Encounter

When shown photographs from online platforms of the individual to a former proprietor of one of the transport companies, he recognized him as "Benny" - the individual he had met in person to negotiate the sale of the business.

A phone number