🔗 Share this article

Criminal syndicates are reportedly acquiring legitimate transport businesses to pose as legitimate drivers and methodically appropriate high-value cargo, based on recent investigations.

Evidence has emerged indicating that several haulage enterprises were acquired using decedent persons' identifying details, enabling perpetrators to establish bogus business structures.

Elaborate Fraud Scheme

One transport company was later contracted as a third-party provider by an unaware UK logistics business. Manufacturers then filled one of the subcontractor's lorries with products that subsequently disappeared entirely.

Alison, who runs a Midlands-based haulage company that was victimized by the bogus subcontractors, described the situation as "incredible" that "criminal elements can infiltrate companies so blatantly".

"You need to care because it affects your wallet," commented an industry expert, formerly a safety director for a major retail chain.

Rising Freight Theft Statistics

Such brazen tactic constitutes just one of multiple methods perpetrators are focusing on haulage firms that deliver commercial stock and additional materials throughout the country, with freight criminal activity in the UK increasing to £111 million last year from £68 million in 2023.

Documented footage shows perpetrators looting trucks during distribution, breaking into transport while stopped in congestion, removing locks and entering depots, and taking complete containers filled with merchandise.

Driver Accounts

Operators, who frequently need to pause and sleep during night hours in their cabs, have described waking to find the curtained sides of their lorries cut by criminals attempting to access the cargo within, with shipments of designer apparel, beverages and devices among the most common targets.

Organized Response

Law enforcement agencies have stated that cargo criminal activity is becoming "more sophisticated, more organized" and emphasized that police forces must to collaborate with the industry to address the problem.

Deception targeting hauliers - encompassing criminals using fraudulent haulage companies - is increasing in the UK, according to official reports.

"Our sector is under attack," says Richard Smith, executive director of a prominent road haulage organization.

Intricate Investigation

The deception scheme seems to mirror a methodology earlier observed in continental Europe, where "authentic haulage companies on the verge of bankruptcy" are acquired by coordinated criminal groups who collect several cargoes "and then disappear".

After the victimization of Alison's firm, investigating personnel told her that police were also investigating similar crimes in other regions of the UK.

Detailed Incident

Alison's haulage firm, which transports substantial amounts of pounds around the country each year, had contracted out to a smaller transport company for a job earlier this year.

"Their insurance was in place, their operators' licence was valid," she explains. "The situation appeared promising." The vehicle arrived at the production company, loading machinery loaded it with DIY items and the truck departed, she states.

But unbeknownst to the business owner and the manufacturers, the vehicle had been using fake number plates. It vanished with the cargo worth at £75,000.

"The first awareness we had regarding it was the receiving business called us and said, 'where's our shipment disappeared to?'" Alison recalls. She tried to call the contractor, but the phone had been deactivated.

Identity Theft Element

So who had appropriated the merchandise? Investigators traced a convoluted trail to attempt to determine the solution, including a deceased man's identity, a unknown Romanian woman and a £150,000 high-end vehicle.

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

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

Investigators identified a group of multiple haulage companies, including Zus Transport, apparently acquired by Mr Calin this year.

But Mr Calin had died in November 2024, confirmed with government records. This was several months before his financial information had been used to purchase several of the businesses and his identity used to establish three of them at official company registries.

Additional 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 good man who helped others in the sector.

The previous proprietors of several of the haulage businesses indicated they had dealt not with Mr Calin, but with a man called "the pseudonym".

Investigators identified him by examining the director of Zus Transport named in government documents, a Romanian female. Information about her is limited, but a phone number for her was located. When checked in communication platforms, it displayed a profile image of a youthful woman, with a alternative name, in a luxury automobile.

The profile picture helped in identifying her as a relative of the deceased individual, and the wife of a man called Benjamin Mustata. Mr Mustata and his wife had posed for a image when taking delivery of a luxury vehicle from a retailer in April, a seven days after the incident targeting Alison's company.

Encounter

When shown images from social media of Mr Mustata to a former owner of one of the haulage companies, he identified him as "Benny" - the individual he had met face-to-face to negotiate the sale of the business.

A phone number