Dick Turpin is alive and well, or at least his descendants are, according to the latest Police crime figures for the UK commercial transport sector. Frank Heinrich-Jones FCII writes, Business Development Executive, Wrightsure Insurance Group, Specialist Commercial Transport Insurance Brokers.
The recent events involving international piracy at sea reminds us of the ever present threat of organised criminal gangs taking advantage of the unwary in the Gulf of Aden and off the Horn of Africa as well as other far-flung places around the world. However, similar nefarious activities are occurring much closer to home, on our highways and byways across the UK as recorded by the police.
TruckPol, the UK Road Freight Crime Unit supported by the Home Office with matched funding and sponsorship from Industry led by the Royal & Sun Alliance has recently published its Annual Report for 2008. It makes interesting but rather depressing reading and must be a cause for concern for all those involved in the UK distribution and supply chain, including their security advisers.
The headline numbers are:
Total number of crimes recorded by TruckPol in 2008 amounted to 3,749 compared with 2,284 incidents recorded in 2007. However, the reader should be aware that not all Police Forces always provide copies of incident reports to TruckPol and unfortunately not all crimes are properly reported to the Police. There were 1,895 Large Goods Vehicles (LGV’s) reported stolen to TruckPol in 2008 compared with 1,176 in 2007, a 62 per cent increase. In 2007 TruckPol recorded 654 thefts from vehicles whilst in 2008 this figure had more than doubled to 1,362.
Other types of crime recorded included attempted theft 230, hijack 50 and 5 attempted hijacks, theft from warehouse 31, where a LGV must have been used to remove the goods, 26 deception incidents and theft (other) 151.
The types of goods that are stolen range from Electronic / Electrical goods (including mobile phones, computer equipment), clothes and shoes, food and beverages, household goods, alcohol and cigarettes and a whole variety of other items including metals, diesel vehicle fuel, plant and equipment.
The cost of such crimes is significant with 2008 stolen vehicle values exceeding £42m and load values also exceeding £42m where the value of the stolen goods is known (sometimes values of stolen loads are not readily available – this can be as high as 50pc of the time). It is estimated that the average loss from each incident is totalling well over £25,000 and the true cost to the UK economy of all road freight crime incidents is believed to be up to £1 billion per year, especially when taking account of hidden costs such as increased insurance premiums, claims investigation costs, management time and effort following an incident, lost profit opportunities and the increased probability of loss of a customer’s future business especial following a large loss.
A full copy of the TruckPol Annual Report 2008 can be downloaded from the TruckPol website. This website also contains details of how to join the TruckPol partnership, it’s every growing list of supporters plus security recommendations and other relevant information – well worth visiting the site for regular updates.
TruckPol is a division of the Association of Chief Police Officers Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service, and is based in Ryton on Dunsmore, Warwickshire. It shares information between the Police, other law enforcement agencies and participating industry partners / insurers on UK road freight crime to deliver solutions, minimise opportunities for criminals and reduce offences.
The benefits brought to tackling Road Freight Crime by TruckPol include the ability of the Police to better spot trends, identify and prosecute offenders, recover stolen goods and assist in co-ordinating, wherever possible, the fight against road freight crime. No other initiative has such a range and depth of knowledge of the problem and how to combat it. That comprehensive experience is being utilised to ensure an effective response to this type of prolific criminal activity.
Police Intelligence – Good intelligence assists the police to disrupt such thefts, without it the apprehension of criminals is prejudiced and the chances of recovery of stolen property reduced.
The recovery of stolen goods requires an up-to-date database to enable Police Officers to identify the goods. TruckPol provides that unique and vital information – linking the theft of goods in location A and recovery of those goods in Location B. There is no other similar Police database of stolen lorry loads in the UK and without it the police would be severally hampered in their efforts to tackle this increasing problem.
Even more galling for the police when exercising a search warrant at the premises of a known or suspected ‘fence’ and discovering an ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ of suspected stolen property the Police may have to return the suspect items to the ‘fence’ unless they can quickly and readily identify them as having been stolen. Naturally the police do not relish having to give such goods back and this is where TruckPol steps in to assist the front line Police Officers to quickly identify the items, wherever possible, as having been stolen, frequently following a criminal incident involving a HGV at the other end of the country.
Organised Crime
Organised criminals cross Police Force boundaries committing their crimes against unsuspecting lorry drivers in a completely different part of the country and then returning to their area of residence with the booty. This is a bit like Dick Turpin and his famous ride from London to York in 1735 on his faithful horse Black Bess in an attempt to avoid suspicion of his highway robbery activities around London. This cross border crime is known in police circles as Level Two criminality and requires the co-operation of a number of different Police Forces to tackle such crimes effectively. The ill-gotten gains from these Highway Robberies can, on some occasions, provide seed corn funding for drugs, illegal immigrants, prostitution and other criminal activities. TruckPol assists this type of crime fighting with significant success.
Benefits
The benefits to Industry and their insurers may be summarised:
? A more co-ordinated response to lorry theft
? Access to vital information and intelligence
? Improvement in the investigation, detection, disruption and recovery of stolen goods
? Raising awareness of the true scale of the problem of Lorry Load Theft in the UK
? Provision of invaluable trend and pattern analysis, vital to theft prevention efforts
? Provision of intelligence to Police and industry on the problem of, and solutions to road freight crime in this country
? Invaluable Single Points of Contact (SPOC’s) in each Police Force ready and willing to assist TruckPol partners with their enquiries.
Successes
There are numerous examples of successful recoveries of stolen property, arrests and successful conviction of lorry thieves and disruption of criminal activities available from the annuals of TruckPol and its predecessor the Essex Police National stolen Lorry Load Desk. More recent successful cases may involve certain sensitivities so the following four notable recoveries of stolen property are worthy of special mention again.
The following examples clearly illustrate the significant work being undertaken to recover stolen goods (please note the ones quoted occurred a number of years ago):
1. Three arrests and the recovery of £450,000 of "Hugo Boss" fashion wear from a ‘Jump Up’ (lorry curtain slashed – normally by use of a sharp knife and the goods off loaded from the lorry). Theft in Manchester area.
2. Full recovery of £100,000 of "Timberland" goods from a theft in Tilbury.
3. Recovery of £450,000 (retail value) of Compaq hand held computers.
4. Recovery of £320,000 (retail value) IKEA products.
There are also numerous examples of successful Police operations specifically targeting organised criminal activity, which frequently includes lorry load theft.
Three such operations were:
Operation Bounce – 4 arrests. 150 incidents (crimes) identified, recoveries of stolen goods and significant disruption of criminal activity.
Operation Garrison – involving a large team of very active criminals operating over a number of years. The fore runner of TruckPol enabled the officers involved to identify goods – sometimes only hours from when they had been stolen and being offered for sale. 86 arrests made and a total value of goods identified as stolen was approximately £2m.
Operation Samson – 7 jailed for a total of 21 years for 14 incidents where stolen goods amounted to £1m.
Dick Turpin’s style of highway robbery is still alive and doing well with numerous hijacks of LGVs being perpetrated up and down the highways and motorways of the UK, sometimes by criminals disguised as police / law enforcement officers. They do on occasions display blue flashing lights behind radiator grills and wear fluorescent yellow jackets and uniform style clothing to trick the lorry drivers to stop. They then frequently get the driver out of their cab my means of deception, saying there is something wrong with the vehicle, or they are doing a roadside check and if the driver resists they often resort to threats or actual violence. The drivers are then bundled into the boot of a car, taken many miles away from the scene of the incident and the lorry and its load are whisked away before anyone is aware of what has happened.
Organised gangs seem to know what is in the back of the lorries they attack. They gain inside information of the loads and the vehicle route the lorry will be taking. There is certain well known Theft Attractive / Target Goods including wines & spirits, especially in the run up to Christmas, tobacco products, metals – due to the high price being obtained for scrap metals in the Far East, Fashion items including garments & furs, mobile phones, Audio/visual equipment, computer and photographic equipment.
However, almost anything will and regularly does get stolen including soap powder and toothpaste, the main criteria for the thief is ‘can the stolen goods readily be converted to cash’ often by means of sale via cash and carry outlets, market stalls and clubs and pubs around the country. The other factor the criminals take into account, perhaps to a lesser extent is, ‘can the goods be easily identified as having been stolen’ from the particular lorry in question?
Without clear evidence, individual item bar codes, to trace the stolen property back to a specific stolen lorry load it becomes very difficult for the police to gather sufficient evidence to convict the suspects.
What of the lonely truck driver, out on our highways and byways often at night and just like our stage coach drivers in Dick Turpin’s day, they are exposed the unscrupulous and nefarious elements of our current day society. Commercial vehicle drivers are frequently attacked whilst in their cabs taking their regulatory breaks. Due to the lack of safe and secure truck parking areas around the UK, it is reckoned that there are only a handful of sites which would meet police standards in the UK, truck drivers are frequently forced to use high risk lay-bys and fall prey to the modern day highway robbers.
A recent in depth study undertaken by the author on attacks on International HGV Drivers, commissioned by the International Road Transport Union (IRU) based in Geneva found that one in six drivers had been attacked during the previous five years, some with serious injuries and long lasting effects.
Some 30% of the attacked drivers had been attacked more than once, 21% were physically assaulted and 60% of the attacks targeted the vehicle and its load, whilst the remaining 40% related to the theft of the driver’s personal belongings. Surprisingly 42% of the attacks took place in truck parking areas, supporting the view that even purpose built supposedly secure lorry parks are not always safe places for the truck driver to park up to take their statutory breaks. 66% of the reported attacks occurred between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am and 30% of the attacked drivers did not report the incident to the police for a variety of reasons but mainly time/delivery pressures and belief that ‘nothing would happen anyway’.
Transport companies of course have a ‘duty of care’ to their employees, their drivers and should undertake regular, adequate and appropriate risk assessments to ensure their drivers are made aware of the dangers of ‘Highway Robbery’ (attacks and hijacks) and the need for their drivers to take all reasonable precautions, including the use of recommended security and theft prevention measures.
See IRU website www.iru.org for security recommendations and a full copy of the Attacks report is available as a free download from:
http://www.iru.org/index/bookshop-display-action?id=186
The current downturn in the economy has inevitably resulted in an increase in incidents as demonstrated by the TruckPol figures. It has also been well known for some time that foreign drivers entering the UK are frequently specifically targeted as easy prey of the organised road freight gangs. The foreign drivers invariably do not understand or are aware of the risks of attack, they frequently do not speak the language and therefore find it difficult to call for assistance or report the incident to the Police. They sometimes do not realise that their loads have been stolen or tampered with until they reach their destination, when the criminals are long gone.
The ‘never happen to me attitude’ should but unfortunately is not dead and buried.
The modern day Dick Turpins are out there and will and frequently do take their pickings from us all. The TruckPol information is relevant for all those involved in the UK distribution and supply chain sector. Transport companies should also ensure that adequate and regular risk assessments are in place to minimise the risk of attacks on their drivers, the loss of valuable freight and disruption to the UK distribution supply chain.
Frank Heinrich-Jones FCII
Wrightsure Insurance Group
Specialist Commercial Transport Insurance Brokers
E-mail: [email protected]
