The Lorry Crime Blog

On March 27 last year, two drivers were killed when Jonnie Reynolds' Volvo lorry ploughed into the tail of four cars behind a Renault truck, between the Histon and the Girton interchanges on the A14.

HGV driver Reynolds aged 49, admitted he left just a 30ft gap between his lorry and the car in front, so when the lorry at the head of the four vehicles carried out an emergency stop, Reynolds' 36t lorry pushed into the cars in front.

Reynolds from Caldecote, Cambridgeshire was found guilty of two charges of causing death by dangerous driving.

Today he was handed a three-year prison sentence and four-year driving ban.

Sympathy of course goes out to the family of the deceased, but its probable Reynolds himself will be in a bad place himself; having to deal with the horror of what he has been found guilty of causing.

There have been other tragic stories over the past 12 months including a trucker who transported an unsecure load, causing the death of a motorist. He was fined £500.

In your opinion is this a case of dramatically bad driving? Of being careless? Or in fact a tragic mistake that many lorry drivers could find themselves making? Any thoughts I want to hear...

An alert from Haulnet has called attention to lay-bys on the A42 between J13 and J14, as there were four instances of curtain slashing in October.

Leicestershire  Police says there have been 16 recorded theft offences in the location over the last 12 months. There are 10 lay-bys in the area, so be alert.

Anyone with any information should contact Leicestershire Police on 01162222222

Have you heard of any attacks in the area?

Little a day after discussing a lorry hijack in Ross-on-Wye, a blog reader (thank you) contacted me with news of a not so dissimilar horror story.

This time armed robbers disguised as police officers set up a bogus checkpoint in Stanwell Road, Feltham and hijacked a silver Transit van carrying £400,000 of computer equipment. One of the four offenders was believed to be carrying a Taser gun.

At 11.18pm on Monday 9 November the van driver was flagged down by the robbers; two were wearing traffic officer caps and hi-vis jackets. They sprayed the driver and passenger with CS gas and forced them out of the vehicle. The hijackers drove the cargo to Stanwell Moor, Staines and unloaded the kit to their own vehicle before ditching the van.

"This was a well-organised and targeted attack aimed at a specific vehicle that the robbers knew would be carrying a high value consignment," says detective sergeant Ian Wilson of the Met Police.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Crimestoppers on 0800555111.

Friday 13 certainly proved a nightmare for one truck driver who was bundled into a van by VOSA impersonators involved in hijacking his trailer and a £300,000 copper load.

The HGV driver was transporting the copper load to several automotive firms in South Wales and stopped in a lay-by off the A40 in Ross-on-Wye at approximately 5.10pm. He was approached by two men from a white Transit van which stopped in the area behind him which is used as a VOSA inspection site.

A replica of red trailer stolen by thieves.

Without warning, the two men bundled the driver into the van and drove off. He was driven to a remote spot near Hambridge in Worcestershire and left at the side of the road. He was found unharmed by police just after 7.30pm.

Witnesses are being sought by West Mercia Police, and anyone with any information is asked to contact Crimestoppers on 0800555111.

On Tuesday 10 November UK Border Agency (UKBA) officers discovered eight hand guns and 200 rounds of ammunition in a HGV at Dover port... oh and thats not to mention the 9,600 cigarettes also packed into the lorry.

This haul is the first of its kind I have personally written about, and its strikes me as rather frightening, because inevitably it's fuelling the gun crime epidemic currently circulating the UK.

Where are the weapons coming from and who is ordering them? All we know in this case it that 48-year old driver, Vitalijus Tauskela, a Lithuanian national, has been charged with attempted smuggling. He was remanded in custody to appear at Dover Magistrates Court on 10 December.

On the same date, 53-year old Lithuanian HGV driver Viktor Maksimov will appear before Dover magistrates for committal proceedings. He has been charged with attempting to smuggle £440,000 worth of cocaine through the Port Of Ramsgate.

These hauls are worth big bucks, but undoubtedly they will cost the UK in terms of lives!

Last week the UK Border Agency (UKBA) discovered three stowaways hiding in a lorry load of vodka in Calais. The freight was headed for Nottingham. Using CO2 probes, officers detected the people hiding inside the Hungarian-registered artic.

The picture below shows a cut tilt cord, and in this incident the cord had been cut and re-fastened with a pin and superglue.

Tilt cord cut by stowaways breaking an entry into a lorry.

Here are some images taken by the Central Motorway Police Group (CMPG) who for two weeks in October trialled a spy-style HGV to capture any truckers breaking rules.

During Operation Parochial cops captured several naughty truckers in action while sitting as a passenger in a Scania R480 cab. Offenders caught on video camera include a foreign driver watching a DVD on his laptop while driving, and another simultaneously texting with a mobile in each hand while driving... pretty scary stuff!

A lorry driver in France has been accused of murdering a father and son haulage duo, a report has claimed.

An article from IrishTrucker.com reports that 57-year old Alain Senges and his 32-year old son Binort were shot dead by an employee who had recently handed his notice in.

The father and son duo helped to run Transports Senges in Toulouse, which was a UPS subcontractor. According to the firm's website Alain was sales manager and his son logistics director.

What is frightening is that this case comes shortly after I commented on the 30-year sentencing of 52-year old HGV driver Russell Carter, who tortured and murdered his boss in Pontypool.

While murder and crimes are inevitably part of our world, it does strike me as concerning to be reporting on two cases which show similarities in such a short space of time. Are people really being pushed to beyond boiling point?

Perhaps there are suspicious details surrounding the incident, regardless, this is a truly sad story of what sounds like cold-blooded murder, which I suspect has left a woman without a husband and son.  

On 12 November 53-year old Lithuanian HGV driver Viktor Maksimov will appear before Dover magistrates. He has been charged with attempting to smuggle £440,000 worth of cocaine through the Port Of Ramsgate.

UK Border Agency (UKBA) officers discovered the 11kg haul on 4 November hidden under a mattress in Maksimov's cab. The truck has arrived on a ferry from Ostend, Belgium.

Not to make a mockery of such a serious issue, but I thought it might be an interesting experiment to guess how many years the accused may get, if any.

I seem to be writing about more and more cases of drug smuggling, although sentencing has varied:

• Kent-based driver jailed for seven years for smuggling £89,000 worth of cocaine into the UK.
• 31 years for Merseyside men who hid £3m of heroin in bacon van.
• Cannabis transporter jailed for six years.

We are yet to hear whether Maksimov will plead guilty, but I wonder how serious a problem drug smuggling is in the haulage sector? Do you think people do it to make a quick buck, or greed or perhaps the belief that it's easy to get away with?

Any thoughts I want to hear, and as a random guess, I would wager the accused gets four years. What do you think??

On 27 August, 19-year old Anthony Burgess tried to steal a truck which had been hired by Stroud, Gloucestershire-based Five Valleys Foyer project to make a community garden in the region. He admitted trying to start the skip loader using a pair of scissors with intent to steal.

Thankfully he could not start the HGV but he did cause damage to the vehicle which had been hired from builders merchant Travis Perkins.

At Stroud Magistrates' Court on 20 October, Burgess, of Reservoir Close, Stroud, admitted:

"I was drunk at the time so I can't really remember what happened."

At aged 19 he is no kid and in my opinion shouldn't play on acting like one. Merely a few years older than him myself, such an excuse I must confess has been used to justify a horrendous Madonna rendition at my local, or maybe to play down why after sinking several vinos, telling a complete stranger my woes last night felt like a good idea at the time; but come on, stealing a truck?