🔗 Share this article

Criminal syndicates are reportedly purchasing established transport businesses to pose as authentic drivers and systematically appropriate valuable cargo, according to new investigations.

Proof has emerged indicating that several haulage enterprises were purchased using deceased persons' personal details, enabling perpetrators to establish bogus business entities.

Elaborate Fraud Operation

One haulage firm was later contracted as a third-party provider by an unsuspecting UK transport company. Producers then filled one of the subcontractor's lorries with products that subsequently vanished completely.

The business owner, who runs a central England transport enterprise that was victimized by the bogus contractors, characterized the situation as "incredible" that "organized groups can target companies so blatantly".

"You need to be concerned because it affects your finances," stated John Redfern, previously a security director for a major supermarket.

Rising Freight Theft Statistics

Such brazen method represents just one of multiple ways perpetrators are targeting haulage firms that deliver retail inventory and other materials throughout the nation, with cargo criminal activity in the UK rising to £111m last year from £68 million in 2023.

Recorded video shows perpetrators looting lorries during distribution, forcing entry into transport while stationary in traffic, cutting locks and breaching warehouses, and taking entire trailers filled with merchandise.

Operator Experiences

Operators, who frequently need to stop and sleep overnight in their cabs, have described waking to find the covered sides of their trucks cut by criminals attempting to access the contents inside, with consignments of branded apparel, beverages and electronics among the most frequent targets.

Coordinated Response

Police authorities have stated that cargo criminal activity is becoming "increasingly advanced, increasingly organized" and emphasized that law enforcement units must to work with the sector to tackle the issue.

Deception affecting hauliers - including perpetrators using fraudulent haulage businesses - is increasing in the UK, based on official reports.

"The sector is under attack," states an industry representative, executive officer of a prominent road haulage organization.

Intricate Examination

This fraud scheme appears to follow a pattern earlier observed in continental Europe, where "legitimate transport businesses on the brink of insolvency" are acquired by organized criminal syndicates who accept multiple shipments "and then vanish".

After the victimization of Alison's firm, investigating personnel informed her that authorities were also investigating comparable incidents in other areas of the UK.

Specific Incident

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

"Their coverage was active, their business licence was in place," she explains. "It looked great." The lorry came at the production company, loading equipment filled it with home improvement items and the lorry drove off, she reports.

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

"Initial awareness we had about it was the destination company called us and asked, 'where's our load gone" Alison says. She tried to call the contractor, but the phone had been disconnected.

Identity Fraud Element

Therefore who had taken the merchandise? Researchers followed a complex path to attempt to establish the answer, including a dead individual's identity, a mystery Eastern European woman and a £150k luxury vehicle.

The company the owner contracted was called Zus Transport. A thirty days prior to the incident, it had been sold by its former proprietors - with no suggestion they were involved in any wrongdoing.

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

Investigators found a network of multiple transport companies, including Zus Transport, apparently acquired by the individual this year.

But Mr Calin had passed away in November 2024, verified with government records. This was months prior to his financial information had been used to acquire multiple of the businesses and his name used to establish three of them at government company records.

Additional Examination

Exists no basis to suspect he was participating in crime, and many people on online platforms expressed respect to him as a decent man who helped others in the sector.

The former proprietors of multiple of the transport companies stated they had interacted not with Mr Calin, but with a man called "Benny".

Researchers identified him by investigating the registered officer of Zus Transport listed in official documents, a Eastern European female. Information about her is limited, but a contact number for her was found. When checked in communication applications, it displayed a profile image of a youthful female, with a different name, in a high-end vehicle.

The account 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 wife had posed for a image when collecting a luxury automobile from a dealership in April, a week after the theft targeting Alison's enterprise.

Encounter

When presented photographs from social media of the individual to a former owner of one of the haulage companies, he identified him as "Benny" - the man he had encountered in person to negotiate the transfer of the company.

A phone number