The Lorry Crime Blog

A 46-year-old Greek trucker is being investigated following the discovery of 2.2m cigarettes in his truck on Monday 26 July at Dover's eastern docks. The duty evaded on the goods is around £500,000.

UK Border Agency officers searched the lorry which had driven off a ferry from France. The cigarettes were found "within white plastic bags the size of bales of hay", a spokesman for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) says.

The HGV driver was arrested, interviewed and subsequently released on bail pending further enquiries.

"Cigarette and tobacco smuggling is not a harmless tax fiddle. It harms honest businesses and costs the UK Billions of pounds in lost revenue," the HMRC spokesman concludes.

Following the death of 47-year old West Sussex-based Michael Baker, a passenger in a recovery truck which collided with a HGV on Saturday 24 July, a 10-year old has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. He has been released on bail following questioning.

It is a truly sad state of affairs when someone so young can be affiliated with something so tragic.

Earlier in the year I reported on frightening statistics released by Autoglass, which revealed that 81% of motorists had witnessed objects being thrown onto the road over the past five years. Does it really take a fatality to make people realise how serious motorway missile attacks are?

At the time of the 10.40am incident on the A20 near the Swanley interchange, a group of young people were standing on the grass bank at the side of the road (on the London-bound carriageway), according to Kent Police.

As the lorry drove (heading towards London) past the young people, the driver, realising something had hit his vehicle, braked and pulled over to the side of the road. While the lorry was stationary the recovery truck collided with it. The recovery truck driver suffered a leg injury, while the lorry driver was not hurt.

A lorry driver is appealing for help in tracking down her two 'cherished' trucks, which were stolen last month.

The Lorry Crime Blog has been contacted by Christine Thomas, who says her 33ft-long DAF 1900 F353 DFD, which was carrying her Morris Commercial SKD17, was stolen between late 24 June and the early hours of 25 June in West Cheshire.

The trucks were toured around the country for shows, and Thomas says they are "cherished vehicles", which she helped to restore. The DAF may have been re-painted and renumbered but is still unique owing to the beaver tail.

The vehicles were last spotted on the M65 in the Lancashire and Yorkshire area. Anyone with any information is asked to contact DC Paul Munnerley on 0845458000, or Crimestoppers on 0800555111.

Dear all,

as always thanks for your support and any crimes in the freight sector tip-offs. I'm away from work for a week, so please do email me any stories to joanna.bourke@rbi.co.uk and I will investigate when I return.

Cheers

Jo

The Ellesmere Port Pioneer today (14 July) detailed how 19-year old Anthony Woodward, of Belgrave Drive, had to call the emergency services to help him escape from his clinging position on a lorry roof.

Sounds like something from a high-paced action movie, you know the ones; fly kicking macho man jumps off bridge to escape the baddies and conveniently lands on moving mega truck.

Well reality check. Woodward is no Jason Statham, and his jumping from a first floor flat on to a lorry waiting at traffic lights is not cool. The incident is described as a 'drunken prank', but I'm sure it wouldn't have been funny for the driver if the teen was dragged under his wheels.

Woodward was rescued on 25 May on the M56 after having travelled on the M53. He was arrested and charged with a public order offence.

Have you ever seen anything more dangerously ludicrous? Any thoughts you have, I want to hear...

Bleadon, Somerset-based lorry driver Christopher Pearce was spotted by South Gloucestershire Council's trading standards team on 12 January. He was driving his 13t vehicle down a road in Westerleigh which has a 7.5t weight limit.

As a result he was fined £115 and ordered to pay £583 in court costs. The latter sounds pretty steep to me, but the council are adamant rules must be obeyed.

"It is unacceptable to burden local people with noise and pollution from vehicles on roads that are not designed to take them," warns Councillor Heather Goddard.

Last week, following a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, I exclusively revealed that the UK Border Agency (UKBA) blocked 29,323 clandestine attempts to enter Britain by way of an HGV in 2009 at juxtaposed controls in UK and French ports; a 4.7% rise on the 28,000 reported by UKBA in 2008.

With the way this year is panning out, I suspect the 2010 figures will be up on 2009, for in the past six months I've reported on several cases where stowaways have been found in trucks, including in dog food cargo. In this latest scenario, the UKBA discovered three Iranian males, two Vietnamese men and one Iraqi male in a lorry-load of crisps.

A detection dog alerted officials to the HGV at Dunkirk on 30 June at 6.20am. The stowaways were removed and handed to the French authorities. 

Spotted this in the Metro this morning. The troubles era in Northern Ireland is an area of history I am personally very interested in, so it was interesting to see lorry crime is also part of the history.

Feel free to email me any pictures of lorry crime documented in history, and I will upload them on to the blog. joanna.bourke@rbi.co.uk

A lorry driver for Argos carrying cargo worth £10,000 was attacked as he left the retailer's DC at Barton Business Park, Staffs, at approximately 1am on Monday 5 July.

Staffordshire Police say the truck was stopped by at least two suspects in a dark-coloured vehicle. One of the lorry cab windows was smashed, and the driver was threatened, with what is thought to be a meat cleaver. He managed to drive away, but reported that he saw one of the offenders trying to cling to the back of the vehicle.

An example of a Argos truck.

The force is keen to trace a recovery vehicle with Auto-Rescue Logistics livery, which had orange flashing lights. It was seen in the area at the time of the attempted robbery, and police wish to see if the driver of the vehicle in question has any information.

Any witnesses are urged to call Crimestoppers on 0800555111.

In a truly harrowing incident, HGV driver Ian Gammell was asleep when his Scania lorry was torched at approximately 4.30am on Thursday 1 July. Three passers-by frantically banged on the cab window at the Petre Business Park, Clayton-le-Moors in Accrington, ensuring he escaped the truck in the nick of time.

His employer, Rodney Rudge, MD at family-run Littleborough-based R Rudge & Son, says the trailer, tractor and cardboard haul was completely gutted. He speaks candidly to me:

"The driver really is lucky to be alive, and while he escaped unharmed, he is mentally shaken up. However he's back at work, because as many will understand, in this industry you just can't afford to lose money, and he has a family to provide for."

Rudge estimates the arson attack has set them back approximately £100,000, including the cost of removing the lorry shell.