Haulage firm bosses say they are powerless to stop rising thefts from their lorries conducted by Goodfellas-style organised crime gangs, who are stealing food, cigarettes and alcohol to sell on the black market.
Figures produced by the British Standards Institution suggest 24 per cent of all thefts from lorries and warehouses last year were food and drink, up from 13 per cent in 2022 – with the goods being sold online within days.
The managing director of one haulage firm told MailOnline the thefts were driving up the prices of deliveries – hitting shoppers’ wallets – and creating recruitment problems. The crimes are also hard for police to detect, he added.
Criminology experts say the gangs are professional – researching when and where lorries are making deliveries, as well as where drivers are likely to stop so they can pounce without using violence, unlike their fictional counterparts.
The thieves typically strike in ‘secure’ car parks – protected by CCTV, but usually unmanned – slashing holes in the curtains on the sides of transporters or even parking another lorry alongside and moving the goods from one into the other.
A scene from Goodfellas in which cases of Pall Mall cigarettes ‘fall off of the back of a truck’
Robert Di Niro as Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas, chronicling the fall of gangster Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta
Rhys Heckling, managing director of freight firm Direct Connect, says companies like his are powerless in the face of organised crime gangs stealing from hauliers
The National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS) says thieves are known to slash open curtains on transporters in order to access the goods
The thefts often happen in ‘secure’ rest stops protected by CCTV – which haulage bosses say is not enough to dissuade the gangs
The National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVICS), a nationwide police initiative tracking and cracking down on freight crime, says it is aware of 5,000 freight crimes in 2022, with £70million of goods stolen.
In December, it was made aware of thefts including a trailer containing £50,000 of cheese, while another was stolen containing food and washing powder at an industrial estate in Kidderminster.
Rhys Hackling, managing director of Bicester freight firm Direct Connect, says companies like his have little choice but to left the thefts happen. In some cases, he even skips reporting the theft to the police because convictions are so rare.
Speaking to MailOnline, he said: ‘I had three thefts last week and for me to make a complaint to the police takes me about an hour, an hour and a half each time and nothing happens. You just get a reference number.
‘These gangs will do about 10, 15 vehicles in a row, slash the curtains, and the vast majority are happening in what are termed “secure” parking.
‘Then it goes on sale within a day or so on places like Facebook Marketplace and eBay, trying to move it quickly. And unless these items have serial numbers and tags they can be very hard to trace back.
‘They study up: they know when the whisky is leaving Scotland and arriving in Bristol and when the drivers are taking their breaks and where.
‘We’re having to put more and more processes in to protect our property but it is an uphill struggle and it is putting our prices up which will affect prices overall.
‘There are very few truly secure parking areas for lorries – most of them just have CCTV and they will strike when nobody’s looking. That’s what’s really frustrating.
‘When a driver is having their trailer slashed while they’re asleep their first response is: “I wish I had woken up.” But we basically have to tell them to let it happen because there’s a risk these guys have weapons.
‘We just treat these as a fact of life now. Trying to retain drivers in this industry is hard enough already.’
Mr Hackling wants rest stop operators to voluntarily adopt more secure parking standards in order to deter thieves from attempting robberies in the first place. Curtain repairs can cost hundreds of pounds each time a robbery takes place.
The British Parking Association has introduced a new standard for truckers’ rest stops called Park Mark Freight that requires continuous fencing, on-site security personnel and good lighting.
But only around ten truck stops are certified as of last December; the BPA is encouraging members to consider joining the scheme – with vehicle-related crime down 80 per cent at certified rest areas.
But Mr Hackling is not confident rest stops will invest in the extra cash to deter thieves – because the UK already has a significant lack of lorry parking. The BPA has previously estimated Britain needs another 11,000 lorry spaces to meet demand.
‘Why would they spend money on secure parking when they’re at 100 per cent occupancy every single night?’ he said.
‘In Europe, there are truck stops every two or three miles, but in the UK if you see a truck stop coming up for approval (for planning permission) the rejections are off the scale and drivers do not have secure places to park.
‘The best way of stopping it is to put in security guards in high-visibility jackets patrolling the area. That is a huge deterrent.’
He added that criminals would avoid violence where possible to keep the potential offences low-level: any violence would exacerbate police investigations, according to Emmeline Taylor, a professor of criminology at City University of London.
She told the Times: ‘Criminals are also familiar with the criminal justice system and will actively avoid using violence or weapons to evade their activities being elevated in seriousness by law enforcement.
‘They are often then categorised as “theft from vehicle” akin to a mobile phone or handbag being snatched in a car park by an opportunist — yet these are very well organised, resourced and organised criminals.’
PC Mike Dawber, of NaVCIS’s freight desk, said: ‘NaVCIS is here to map cargo crimes more accurately such as curtain slashes and trailer thefts and we receive more than 5,000 notifications about such offences annually, but we are pleased to report there have been two big steps forward in the last 12 months.
‘Firstly, the UK needs to adopt a UK secure truck parking standard via the British Parking Association’s implemented scheme “Park Mark Freight” and ten sites are now accredited in the country.
‘Secondly, there is £52.5million of government money being promised to improve driver welfare facilities such as showers and toilets and security such as CCTV, barrier access, lighting and fencing at existing truck parks and motorway services which is match-funded, meaning it is a potential overall investment of £105million.
‘I’m also pleased to report that there is good policing work going on nationally that has seen 56 arrests made in October alone for cargo crimes.’
NaVICS and the BPA were contacted for further comment.
This post first appeared on Daily mail
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