Gangs buy haulage firms to steal lorryloads of goods

According to the BBC, criminal cartels are purchasing haulage companies to pose as legitimate operators and steal goods by the lorryload.

BBC investigators discovered evidence that a number of haulage companies were purchased using a dead man's identity. An unwitting UK transport company then hired one of these fraudulent companies as a subcontractor. A manufacturer filled one of the subcontractor's lorries with fresh produce, which was never seen again.

Alison (not her real name), who runs the Midlands transport company that was tricked by the fake subcontractors, says it is "incredible" that "a gang can go into and threaten a company so blatantly."

This brazen tactic is just one of the ways criminals are targeting haulage companies moving retail products and other items around the region. Freight theft in the United Kingdom increased to £111 million last year, up from £68 million in 2023.

Criminals are raiding lorries as they make deliveries, breaking into vehicles as they wait in traffic, cutting locks, breaking into depots, and stealing whole trailers filled with goods, according to footage obtained by the BBC.

Drivers, who often have to stop and sleep overnight in their cabs, told the BBC that they wake up to find the curtain-sides of their lorries slashed by criminals attempting to get inside. Designer clothes, alcohol, and electronics are among the most common targets.

"You should be concerned because it hits your wallet," says John Redfern, a former security consultant for a large supermarket. He warned that if more products are stolen, the cost will be passed on to the customer.

Freight crime is becoming "more advanced, more organised," according to the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC), which stated that police forces must collaborate with the industry to respond.

'Under Attack'

According to the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS), fraud affecting hauliers—including criminals using bogus haulage companies—is on the rise in the UK.

"Our industry is under attack," says Richard Smith, managing director of the Road Haulage Association. He noted that every day, the industry body hears that "highly coordinated criminal groups" are threatening businesses. Police have warned of "a new surge" in sophisticated methods.

The BBC's investigation indicates that some fraud originates in mainland Europe, where legitimate transport companies on the brink of bankruptcy are purchased by organised crime groups. These groups then pick up several cargoes and vanish.

Alison's haulage company, which moves millions of pounds of goods around the country each year, subcontracted a job to a smaller transport company earlier this year. She explained that she does this occasionally when her own lorries are fully booked or in the wrong location.

"They had insurance, and their operator's licence was in force," she says. "It looked great."

According to Alison, the lorry arrived at the manufacturing plant, a forklift truck loaded it with DIY products, and the lorry drove away. However, unbeknownst to Alison and the manufacturers, the vehicle was using fake number plates. It disappeared with cargo worth £75,000.

"Where's our load gone?" the destination company asked when they called us—that was the first we learned about it," Alison says. She tried to ring the subcontractor, but the number had been disconnected.

A Dead Man's Identity

So, who had taken the goods? BBC investigators followed a twisting trail to find out, involving a dead man's identity, a mysterious Romanian woman, and a £150,000 Lamborghini Urus.

Alison had hired a firm called Zus Transport. It had been sold by its previous owners a month before the robbery; there is no evidence that the previous owners were involved in any wrongdoing.

The acquisition was funded by a bank transfer from a company owned by Ionut Calin, a UK-based Romanian lorry driver known by his middle name, Robert. We discovered a network of five transport firms, including Zus Transport, that had apparently been purchased by Mr Calin this year.

However, Romanian officials confirmed that Mr Calin died in November 2024. He had passed away months before his bank details were used to purchase several of the companies, and his name was used to register three of them at Companies House. We have no reason to believe he was involved in illegal conduct, and thousands of people on social media praised him as a "good guy" who supported others in the industry.

The former owners of several of the transport companies said they had not dealt with Mr Calin, but with a man named "Benny."

Tracking Down 'Benny'

We identified "Benny" by investigating the head of Zus Transport, a Romanian woman named in Companies House documents. While there were few details about her, we found a phone number. Searching for the number on WhatsApp revealed a profile photo of a young woman—with a different name—sitting in a Lamborghini.

The photo helped identify her as a relative of Mr Calin and the wife of a man named Benjamin Mustata.

In the week following the theft affecting Alison's company, Mr Mustata and his wife posted a photo. When we showed photos from social media to the former owner of one of the transport companies, he identified Mr Mustata as "Benny"—the man he had met face-to-face to discuss the company's sale.

Mr Mustata's phone number was also used to arrange the collection of the goods stolen by the subcontractors who scammed Alison. The same number had been used by "Benny" to buy one of the transport companies using Robert Calin's name and bank details.

We were directed to Romania when we went to Mr Mustata's address to drop off a letter asking about his possible involvement. That information proved false. We tracked him down to Coventry, where he was selling luxury cars.

When asked about Zus Transport, Mr Mustata replied, "Go away."

He denied using a dead man's name to buy haulage companies and using Zus Transport to steal products. He admitted to buying Zus Transport but claimed he did so on behalf of a relative and that he was not in possession of the company at the time of the robbery. Mr Mustata claimed someone else must have been using Zus Transport's name on a subcontracting website to steal the items.

"The company is registered at my address. My own address. I'm living there. Would I do stuff wrong at my own address?" he said. He insisted the stolen load had "nothing to do" with him, adding: "It's not my fault."

'A Kind of Malaise'

Arun Chauhan, a fraud lawyer, reviewed the BBC's findings and said the scheme involved identity theft and deceiving Companies House, the government body that registers limited companies.

He said he felt there was a "kind of malaise" because companies often take the risk, assuming insurance will cover losses. In reality, he argued, crime such as this "damages individual lives, particularly those that own the company."

"I think they're just thinking... the system's never going to have the resources to keep up with us," Mr Chauhan said.

Rachel Taylor, the Labour MP for North Warwickshire and Bedworth, where one in five people work in logistics, said the BBC inquiry "lays bare what I hear constantly from hauliers: that increasingly sophisticated crime syndicates are having a huge effect on their businesses."

She said the issue had gone "unrecognised for too long" and required a "joined-up national policing campaign and more funding... so that these organised criminals can be put behind bars where they belong."

Jayne Meir, the NPCC's first lead on freight crime, announced that a new Opal team—a police intelligence unit fighting organised acquisitive crime—would start targeting the issue next year.

However, in the meantime, business owners such as Alison claim that such crimes have a "massive effect."

"We're going home at night and we're not sleeping," she says. "Haulage businesses don't make a lot of money, and it only takes something like this to put us out of business."