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Organized crime groups are reportedly purchasing established haulage companies to pose as legitimate drivers and methodically steal high-value cargo, based on new findings.

Evidence has emerged indicating that several transport operations were acquired using deceased persons' identifying information, allowing criminals to establish bogus commercial entities.

Elaborate Fraud Operation

A particular transport firm was subsequently hired as a subcontractor by an unaware UK logistics company. Manufacturers then filled one of the subcontractor's lorries with merchandise that subsequently disappeared completely.

The business owner, who runs a Midlands-based transport company that was victimized by the bogus contractors, characterized the situation as "incredible" that "criminal groups can infiltrate companies so openly".

"You need to be concerned because it impacts your finances," commented an industry expert, formerly a security manager for a major supermarket.

Increasing Cargo Crime Figures

Such brazen tactic represents just one of numerous ways criminals are focusing on haulage companies that transport retail stock and other materials across the country, with cargo criminal activity in the UK increasing to £111m last year from £68 million in 2023.

Recorded video shows perpetrators looting lorries during deliveries, forcing entry into vehicles while stationary in congestion, removing security devices and breaching warehouses, and taking complete trailers packed with merchandise.

Driver Accounts

Drivers, who frequently need to pause and sleep overnight in their cabs, have described waking to discover the curtained panels of their lorries slashed by thieves attempting to reach the contents within, with shipments of designer clothing, beverages and devices among the particularly frequent targets.

Coordinated Action

Law enforcement agencies have stated that freight crime is becoming "more sophisticated, increasingly organized" and emphasized that law enforcement forces must to collaborate with the industry to tackle the issue.

Fraud targeting transport companies - including criminals using fraudulent haulage businesses - is rising in the UK, according to authoritative sources.

"The industry is being targeted," states an industry representative, executive director of a prominent road haulage association.

Complex Investigation

The fraud scheme seems to follow a methodology earlier identified in mainland Europe, where "legitimate transport companies on the verge of insolvency" are purchased by organized crime groups who accept several shipments "before disappear".

After the victimization of Alison's firm, handling personnel informed her that police were also investigating similar incidents in different regions of the UK.

Specific Incident

The haulage business, which moves substantial amounts of pounds throughout the nation each year, had subcontracted to a less established transport firm for a job previously this year.

"Their coverage was in place, their operators' licence was valid," she says. "The situation appeared promising." The vehicle came at the manufacturing company, filling equipment filled it with DIY products and the lorry departed, she reports.

But unknown to Alison and the producers, the lorry had been using fake number plates. It disappeared with the shipment worth at seventy-five thousand pounds.

"Initial awareness we had regarding it was the receiving company called us and said, 'where is our load gone" the owner says. She tried to call the subcontractor, but the number had been disconnected.

Identity Theft Element

Therefore who had taken the merchandise? Researchers traced a complex trail to try to establish the answer, involving a dead man's identity, a unknown Romanian woman and a £150,000 luxury vehicle.

The company Alison contracted was called Zus Transport. A thirty days prior to the incident, it had been sold by its former owners - with zero suggestion they were participating in any wrongdoing.

Investigation revealed that the takeover was funded by a bank transfer from a entity controlled by a UK-based Romanian lorry driver called Ionut Calin, who went by his middle name Robert.

Investigators identified a group of multiple haulage businesses, comprising Zus Transport, apparently purchased by Mr Calin this year.

However Mr Calin had died in November 2024, confirmed with official sources. This was several months before his bank details had been used to acquire several of the businesses and his name used to establish three of them at government company registries.

Additional Investigation

Exists no reason to believe he was participating in illegal activity, and many people on social media paid tribute to him as a good man who helped others in the industry.

The former proprietors of multiple of the transport businesses indicated they had interacted not with the deceased individual, but with a man known as "Benny".

Investigators identified him by investigating the director of Zus Transport listed in official documents, a Romanian woman. Data about her is limited, but a contact details for her was found. When searched in communication applications, it displayed a profile image of a youthful female, with a alternative identity, in a luxury vehicle.

The profile picture helped in identifying her as a family member of the deceased individual, and the wife of a man named Benjamin Mustata. The individual and his wife had posed for a image when taking delivery of a luxury automobile from a dealership in April, a seven days following the incident affecting the business owner's enterprise.

Confrontation

When shown photographs from social media of the individual to a former owner of one of the transport businesses, he recognized him as "the pseudonym" - the individual he had met face-to-face to discuss the transfer of the business.

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