Organised criminal gangs are stealing goods worth £700 million a year from lorries across the UK, operating with near impunity. The scale of the problem was laid bare by Mike Dawber, the country's leading cargo crime detective, who investigates every major theft.
In August 2021, Dawber was called to two warehouses in Bradford containing an 'awful lot of suspicious goods'. Inside, he found 17 pallets of golfing equipment stolen three weeks earlier from a truck at Lymm motorway services, worth about £1 million. He also discovered 18 pallets of Asics trainers stolen three years prior, 14 pallets of lawnmowers stolen five years earlier, and other items including IT equipment, sportswear, high-end fashion, and beauty products. One pallet labelled 'Eyelash technology' was valued at over £500,000.
Dawber, a field intelligence officer for the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (Navcis), connects police forces across England and Wales. His memory for stolen goods is prodigious: he can recall details of thefts instantly, such as the 11 February 2023 theft of a truck carrying £250,000 worth of Cadbury Creme Eggs from Telford. In another case, he identified 2,300 bottles of Martel cognac stolen from Daventry after Nottinghamshire police stopped a van on false plates.
Since 2017, the number of cases reaching Dawber has more than tripled to about 5,000 a year. Gangs now target everyday items like baby formula, kitchen fittings, perfume, and PS5s rather than bullion, as the risk of long prison sentences for armed robbery has made cargo theft more attractive. The cost of living crisis has driven a 79% rise in food and beverage thefts in 2024, including the theft of 35,000 pints of Guinness in December 2024 and 950 wheels of premium cheddar in London, dubbed 'the grate cheese heist'.
Dawber continues to investigate cases ranging from stolen plastic drinking cups worth £70,000 to laptops worth £250,000, and even a truckload of sex toys that vanished two years ago. His expertise is crucial in a crime wave that shows no signs of abating.
