Criminals buy haulage firms to steal lorryloads of goods, BBC finds

William McLennan, Elizabeth Glinka and Victoria Archer,BBC Native InvestigationsGetty ImagesCriminal gangs are shopping for up haulage companies to pose as truckers and steal items by the lorryload, the BBC has discovered.We discovered proof {that a} group of haulage firms have been bought utilizing a useless man’s particulars.One of many haulage companies was then employed as a subcontractor by an unwitting UK transport firm. A producer loaded one of many subcontractor’s lorries up with items – which have been then by no means seen once more.Alison – not her actual identify – runs the Midlands transport agency that was tricked by the faux subcontractors, and says it’s “unimaginable” that “a gang can go in and goal an organization so blatantly”.This brazen tactic is simply one of many methods criminals are focusing on haulage companies who ship retail inventory and different provides all around the nation, as freight theft within the UK rose to £111m final 12 months, from £68m in 2023.Footage obtained by the BBC exhibits criminals raiding lorries as they make deliveries, breaking into automobiles whereas they wait in visitors, chopping locks and breaking into depots, and stealing complete trailers full of items.Watch: Footage of products being stolen from lorries in broad daylightDrivers, who incessantly need to cease and sleep in a single day of their cabs, have instructed the BBC they typically wake to search out the curtained sides of their lorries slashed by criminals who tried to get on the cargo inside, with shipments of designer garments, alcohol and electronics among the many most typical targets.”You need to care as a result of it hits your pockets,” says John Redfern, a former safety supervisor for a serious grocery store. As extra merchandise get stolen, the price of items for the patron will go up over time, he stated.The Nationwide Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) stated freight crime is changing into “extra refined, extra organised” and stated police forces have to work with the business to reply.Some drivers instructed the BBC the perimeters of their lorries have been slashed overnightFraud focusing on hauliers – together with criminals utilizing bogus haulage firms – is on the rise within the UK, in line with the police’s Nationwide Automobile Crime Intelligence Service.”Our business is below assault,” says Richard Smith, managing director of the Highway Haulage Affiliation. The business physique hears every single day of companies focused by “extremely organised crime gangs” and police have warned them of “a latest progress” in rather more refined strategies, he says.The fraud recognized by the BBC seems to observe a sample beforehand seen by Europol in mainland Europe, the place “authentic transport firms on the point of chapter” are purchased by organised crime teams who choose up a number of cargoes “after which vanish”.After Alison’s agency was focused, the officers engaged on her case instructed her police have been additionally investigating related crimes in different elements of the UK.Alison’s haulage agency, which strikes thousands and thousands of kilos across the nation every year, subcontracted to a smaller transport firm for a job earlier this 12 months. She says she generally does this when her lorries are busy or within the flawed place.”Their insurance coverage was in place, their operators’ licence was in place,” she says. “It regarded nice.” The lorry arrived on the manufacturing firm, a forklift truck loaded it up with DIY merchandise and the lorry drove off, she says.However unknown to Alison and the producers, the lorry had been utilizing faux quantity plates. It disappeared with the cargo price £75,000.”The primary we knew about it was the vacation spot firm rang us and stated, ‘the place’s our load gone?'” Alison says. She tried to ring the subcontractor, however the quantity had been disconnected.A useless man’s identitySo who had taken the products? We adopted a twisting path to attempt to discover out, involving a useless man’s identification, a thriller Romanian lady and a £150,000 Lamborghini Urus.The corporate Alison employed was known as Zus Transport. A month earlier than the theft, it had been offered by its earlier homeowners – there isn’t a suggestion they have been concerned in any wrongdoing.The BBC found that the takeover was funded by a financial institution switch from an organization owned by a UK-based Romanian lorry driver named Ionut Calin, who glided by his center identify Robert.We discovered a community of 5 transport firms, together with Zus Transport, seemingly bought by Mr Calin this 12 months.However Mr Calin died in November 2024, we confirmed with Romanian officers. That was months earlier than his financial institution particulars had been used to purchase a number of of the businesses and his identify used to register three of them at Corporations Home.TikTokRobert Calin’s particulars have been used to purchase 5 transport companiesWe haven’t any motive to consider he was concerned in crime, and dozens of individuals on social media paid tribute to him as man who helped others within the business.The previous homeowners of a number of of the transport firms stated that they had dealt not with Mr Calin, however with a person known as “Benny”. So who was he?We discovered him by investigating the director of Zus Transport named in Corporations Home information, a Romanian lady. Details about her is scarce, however we discovered a cellphone quantity for her. After we looked for the quantity in WhatsApp, it confirmed a profile image of a younger lady, with a unique identify, in a Lamborghini.The profile image helped us establish her as a relative of Mr Calin, and the spouse of a person named Benjamin Mustata. Mr Mustata and his spouse had posed for a photograph when amassing a Lamborghini from a dealership in April, per week after the theft focusing on Alison’s firm.TikTokImages of Benjamin Mustata posing with a Lamborghini helped the BBC join him to the haulage firmsWhen we confirmed pictures from social media of Mr Mustata to a former proprietor of one of many transport firms, he recognized him as “Benny” – the person he had met face-to-face to barter the sale of the corporate.A cellphone quantity Mr Mustata utilized in 2023 to lease a property in Coventry was additionally used to rearrange assortment of the products stolen by the subcontractors who scammed Alison. The identical quantity had additionally been utilized by “Benny” to purchase one of many transport firms utilizing Robert Calin’s identify and financial institution particulars.After we went to Mr Mustata’s handle to ship a letter with questions on his suspected involvement within the theft, we have been instructed he had moved to Romania.That was false. We tracked him right down to Coventry, the place he was promoting luxurious vehicles. Requested about Zus Transport, Mr Mustata stated: “Go away.” He denied utilizing a useless man’s identification to purchase haulage firms and utilizing Zus Transport to steal items.He admitted shopping for Zus Transport, however stated he did so on behalf of a relative and was not answerable for the corporate on the time of the theft.Watch: BBC challenges Benjamin Mustata about his hyperlinks to Zus TransportMr Mustata stated any individual else had been utilizing Zus Transport’s identify on a subcontracting platform, and that they will need to have stolen the products.”The corporate is registered in my handle. My very own handle. I am dwelling there. The way you assume, yeah, I used to be doing issues unhealthy to my very own handle?” he stated.He stated the stolen load had “nothing” to do with him, including: “It is not my fault.”Fraud lawyer Arun Chauhun examined the BBC’s findings and stated the scheme focusing on Alison gave the impression to be “effectively set-up”, involving identification fraud and deceiving Corporations Home, the federal government physique that registers restricted firms.He stated he thought there was a “type of malaise that companies can afford to take the hit” as a result of they’ve insurance coverage, however in actuality crime corresponding to this “damages particular person lives, these individuals who personal the companies”.However as for whoever is in the end behind the crime, Mr Chauhun stated: “I feel they’re simply pondering, effectively, the system’s by no means going to have the useful resource to meet up with us.”Labour MP Rachel Taylor, who represents North Warwickshire and Bedworth the place about one in 5 individuals work in logistics, stated the BBC investigation “lays naked what I hear consistently from hauliers: that more and more refined crime gangs are having a big impact on their companies”.She stated it had “gone unrecognised for too lengthy”, and known as for a “joined up nationwide policing technique and extra assets to deal with this problem, so we are able to put these organised criminals behind bars the place they belong”.Deputy Chief Constable Jayne Meir, the NPCC’s first lead for freight crime, stated a brand new workforce at Opal – a police intelligence unit tackling organised acquisitive crime – would begin focusing on the problem subsequent 12 months.However within the meantime, enterprise homeowners corresponding to Alison say crimes like these have a “large influence”. “We’re going dwelling at night time and we’re not sleeping,” she says. “Haulage companies do not make some huge cash and it solely takes one thing like this and also you’re out of enterprise.”