🔗 Share this article

Criminal syndicates are allegedly purchasing established transport companies to pose as authentic drivers and methodically steal valuable cargo, according to recent findings.

Proof has emerged indicating that multiple haulage operations were purchased using deceased persons' identifying details, allowing perpetrators to establish fraudulent commercial structures.

Elaborate Fraud Operation

One transport firm was later hired as a third-party provider by an unaware UK transport business. Manufacturers then filled one of the contractor's lorries with products that later vanished entirely.

The business owner, who runs a central England haulage company that was victimized by the fraudulent subcontractors, described the circumstances as "unbelievable" that "criminal elements can target businesses so openly".

"You need to care because it impacts your finances," commented John Redfern, previously a safety manager for a major retail chain.

Increasing Freight Theft Statistics

This brazen tactic constitutes just one of numerous ways criminals are targeting haulage firms that transport commercial inventory and additional materials across the country, with cargo theft in the UK rising to £111 million last year from £68 million in 2023.

Recorded video demonstrates perpetrators raiding lorries during deliveries, forcing entry into transport while stopped in congestion, removing security devices and breaching depots, and taking entire trailers filled with goods.

Operator Experiences

Drivers, who often need to stop and sleep during night hours in their vehicles, have described waking to discover the covered panels of their trucks slashed by criminals attempting to reach the contents within, with shipments of designer apparel, alcohol and electronics among the particularly frequent targets.

Coordinated Action

Law enforcement authorities have indicated that freight crime is becoming "more advanced, increasingly coordinated" and emphasized that police units need to work with the industry to address the problem.

Fraud targeting hauliers - including perpetrators using bogus haulage businesses - is increasing in the UK, based on authoritative sources.

"Our sector is being targeted," states Richard Smith, managing director of a major transport association.

Complex Investigation

This fraud scheme appears to mirror a pattern previously identified in continental Europe, where "authentic transport companies on the brink of bankruptcy" are acquired by organized crime groups who accept several shipments "and then disappear".

Following the targeting of the business owner's company, investigating personnel told her that police were also investigating comparable incidents in different areas of the UK.

Specific Case

Alison's transport business, which transports millions of currency throughout the nation each year, had contracted out to a smaller haulage firm for a assignment previously this year.

"Their insurance was active, their operators' licence was in place," she says. "It appeared great." The lorry came at the manufacturing facility, loading machinery loaded it with home improvement products and the truck departed, she reports.

However unbeknownst to the business owner and the manufacturers, the lorry had been using fake number plates. It vanished with the cargo valued at seventy-five thousand pounds.

"Initial awareness we had regarding it was the destination business contacted us and asked, 'where's our shipment disappeared to?'" the owner recalls. She tried to call the subcontractor, but the phone had been disconnected.

Identity Fraud Element

Therefore who had taken the goods? Researchers traced a complex trail to try to establish the solution, involving a dead individual's identity, a mystery Eastern European woman and a £150k luxury automobile.

The company the owner contracted was named Zus Transport. A month prior to the theft, it had been sold by its previous owners - with no suggestion they were involved in any wrongdoing.

Investigation discovered that the acquisition was financed by a bank transfer from a entity owned by a UK-based Eastern European transport operator called Ionut Calin, who went by his second name Robert.

Investigators found a network of five transport businesses, comprising Zus Transport, apparently purchased by Mr Calin this year.

However Mr Calin had passed away in November 2024, confirmed with government records. This was several months prior to his financial information had been utilized to acquire several of the businesses and his identity employed to establish several of them at official company records.

Additional Investigation

There is zero basis to suspect he was participating in illegal activity, and many people on social media paid tribute to him as a good man who assisted others in the sector.

The previous proprietors of several of the haulage companies indicated they had interacted not with the deceased individual, but with a man known as "the pseudonym".

Researchers located him by investigating the registered officer of Zus Transport listed in official records, a Romanian female. Information about her is limited, but a contact details for her was found. When searched in communication applications, it showed a profile picture of a youthful female, with a alternative name, in a luxury automobile.

The account image assisted in recognizing her as a family member of the deceased individual, and the spouse of a man called Benjamin Mustata. The individual and his spouse had posed for a image when taking delivery of a high-end vehicle from a dealership in April, a week following the incident affecting Alison's company.

Confrontation

When shown images from online platforms of Mr Mustata to a former proprietor of one of the haulage companies, he recognized him as "the pseudonym" - the individual he had met face-to-face to discuss the sale of the company.

A phone number