Cargo theft a hit to Canadian economy, security: fraud forum

Cargo theft is not simply about stolen goods – affecting an individual load or a particular company – but extends beyond that to adversely influence the economy as a whole, Richard Dubin, vice president of investigative services for the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), suggested during the Annual Toronto Fraud Forum Tuesday.

“We’re trying to increase the awareness of it and the seriousness of how it affects both our economy and in terms of security for Canadians,” Dubin told attendees of a session at the forum, jointly hosted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (Toronto Chapter) and the Canadian Association of Special Investigation Units (Trillium Chapter).

IBC supports giving cargo theft a higher profile and adopting tougher sentencing, Dubin said. “Sentencing hasn’t been very tough for this type of crime. A perfect example is there are cases where a person gets caught with a million dollars of narcotics – cocaine, whatever – and they get a very heavy jail sentence. They’ll grab somebody who was involved in stealing a trailer load and they’re not, at times, getting jail sentences,” he added.

That is one reason why IBC lobbied for Bill S-9, an Act to Amend the Criminal Code, which at its heart, is auto theft legislation.

“But the beauty of Bill S-9 is it also includes the seizure of property obtained by crime, which would cover cargo theft,” Dubin told session attendees. “As a result of that, we are working with CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) now where they are prepared through intelligence to identify containers that they think have stolen cargo and start seizing those containers,” he said.

Under the act, trafficking in property obtained by crime and possession of property obtained by crime for the purposes of trafficking are subject to imprisonment for as long as 14 years.

Beyond enhanced awareness and tougher sentencing, though, is the need for greater consistency in how cargo crime is reported.

Dubin said that IBC is working with both law enforcement and Statistics Canada to develop some form of standardized reporting. “Without data analysis, you really are in the dark in terms of what trends are basically taking place.”

And trends are changing all the time. One new trend, Dubin reported, involves what is actually being stolen. “Originally, what we were finding is they were stealing just the cargo,” he told attendees. But review of recent data indicates that “over and over and over again, we’re seeing they’re stealing the whole thing: they’re stealing the tractor, the trailer and the cargo.”

At present, two main theft targets are automotive parts and food/groceries. With regard to the former, Dubin said it is not necessarily the parts themselves that are attractive to thieves, but rather what those parts contain.

Citing a large theft of brake pads, Dubin explained that the idea was to melt down the pads to obtain the metal. “That’s where the money is,” he noted. “Certain types of automotive parts have very expensive metals, so they’re making a fortune on that,” he said.

With regard to food and grocery – items such as household supplies, detergents and soaps – these are attractive to mom-and-pop or corner stores. The items are “easy to sell them and you can’t trace them, so they’re ending up all over the place in corner stores,” Dubin said.

“Everybody is looking for a deal,” suggested Louis Malbeuf, an inspector with the York Regional Police.

“Cargo theft is a huge business,” Malbeuf said, pointing out that a tractor-trailer load is taken every day. “They will steal anything; anything they can take, they will take it and it’s gone within 24 hours,” he noted.

Goods may end up in a warehouse where they are quickly transferred to another container and shipped elsewhere, Malbeuf said, or they may remain in the same warehouse and be sold off in pieces.

Malbeuf emphasized the need to work together and report when a theft, in fact, occurs. “What I find is a lot of the companies, for whatever reason, they won’t report it,” perhaps because insurance premiums will increase or they are “embarrassed because their security was so lax,” he said.

Companies need to get beyond that and report incidents to someone. “I can’t tell you how many times, in the middle of the night, we’ll go into a warehouse and we know the stuff is stolen, but we can’t find our victims. We can’t find where it comes from,” Malbeuf told attendees. “We’re leaving it there because we have no proof to take it.”

However, if people report thefts, the information can be passed along. “We do search warrants on a regular basis because the industry is so busy and it’s very lucrative,” Malbeuf said. “It’s 10 cents on the dollar, that’s what they’re getting.”