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Organized crime groups are reportedly acquiring legitimate haulage companies to masquerade as legitimate truckers and systematically steal valuable shipments, based on new findings.

Proof has emerged indicating that multiple transport enterprises were acquired using deceased individuals' personal information, enabling criminals to establish bogus commercial entities.

Elaborate Fraud Operation

A particular transport firm was subsequently hired as a third-party provider by an unsuspecting UK transport company. Manufacturers then filled one of the contractor's vehicles with merchandise that subsequently vanished completely.

Alison, who runs a central England haulage company that was targeted by the bogus subcontractors, described the situation as "unbelievable" that "criminal elements can infiltrate companies so openly".

"Consumers should care because it impacts your finances," commented an industry expert, formerly a security director for a major retail chain.

Rising Cargo Crime Figures

This brazen method represents just one of numerous methods perpetrators are targeting transport firms that deliver commercial inventory and other materials throughout the nation, with freight theft in the UK increasing to £111 million last year from £68 million in 2023.

Recorded footage demonstrates criminals raiding lorries during distribution, forcing entry into vehicles while stopped in congestion, removing security devices and breaching warehouses, and stealing entire containers packed with merchandise.

Operator Accounts

Drivers, who often need to pause and rest overnight in their vehicles, have described awakening to discover the covered panels of their trucks cut by criminals attempting to access the contents within, with shipments of branded clothing, alcohol and electronics among the most common targets.

Organized Action

Law enforcement agencies have indicated that freight crime is becoming "increasingly advanced, increasingly coordinated" and emphasized that law enforcement units need to work with the sector to address the problem.

Deception targeting hauliers - encompassing perpetrators using bogus haulage businesses - is rising in the UK, according to official sources.

"The industry is being targeted," says an industry representative, executive director of a prominent transport organization.

Intricate Investigation

This deception scheme appears to mirror a pattern previously identified in continental Europe, where "authentic transport businesses on the brink of insolvency" are purchased by coordinated crime groups who accept multiple cargoes "before vanish".

Following the targeting of Alison's company, investigating officers told her that authorities were additionally investigating comparable incidents in different areas of the UK.

Specific Case

Alison's haulage business, which moves millions of currency around the nation each year, had contracted out to a smaller transport company for a job previously this year.

"The coverage was in place, their operators' permit was valid," she explains. "The situation looked promising." The lorry came at the production facility, filling equipment loaded it with home improvement items and the truck drove off, she reports.

However unknown to Alison and the producers, the lorry had been using fraudulent registration plates. It disappeared with the shipment worth at £75,000.

"The first awareness we had regarding it was the receiving business called us and asked, 'where's our shipment gone" Alison says. She attempted to call the subcontractor, but the phone had been deactivated.

Personal Fraud Element

So who had taken the merchandise? Investigators followed a complex trail to attempt to determine the answer, involving a dead individual's identity, a unknown Romanian female and a £150,000 luxury automobile.

The business Alison contracted was called Zus Transport. A thirty days before the incident, it had been sold by its previous owners - with no suggestion they were involved in any improper activity.

Research discovered that the acquisition was funded by a bank transfer from a entity owned by a UK-based Eastern European lorry driver called Ionut Calin, who went by his second name Robert.

Researchers identified a group of five transport businesses, including Zus Transport, apparently purchased by Mr Calin this year.

But the individual had died in November 2024, confirmed with official sources. This was months prior to his financial information had been used to purchase several of the companies and his name employed to register three of them at official business registries.

Further Examination

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

The previous owners of several of the transport companies stated they had interacted not with Mr Calin, but with a man known as "the pseudonym".

Investigators located him by examining the director of Zus Transport named in government records, a Eastern European woman. Data about her is scarce, but a contact details for her was found. When checked in messaging platforms, it displayed a profile image of a young female, with a different identity, in a high-end vehicle.

The account picture assisted in recognizing her as a family member of Mr Calin, and the wife of a man called Benjamin Mustata. Mr Mustata and his wife had posed for a image when collecting a high-end automobile from a dealership in April, a week after the incident targeting the business owner's company.

Encounter

When presented photographs from online platforms of the individual to a former owner of one of the haulage businesses, he identified him as "Benny" - the man he had encountered in person to negotiate the sale of the business.

A phone number