Frei trai t forwarder leaves a of debts and questions
Page 4
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
EI by Melanie Hammond
British police and Customs officers are investigating a freight forwarding company whose directors have left a trail of debts in Italy and the UK. Harrison & Smith European Cargo (H&S) became a registered company in the UK in June, operating from offices in East London. But now the phone is disconnected. Police have been told the offices are closed 'for refurbishment" and the directors are said to be "on holiday".
According to Clara Cigalotto of Italian haulier Agenzia Luisa, H&S owes it around £8,000 for loads moved between Italy arid the UK in August and September, one of which was destined for Eddie Stobart. She has heard from other hauliers that H&S was offering rates higher than it received in return for subcontracting out the load. "They were supposed to pay us around £1,900 for one job but I found out they were only getting 11,400 from the other company," she says. "It's clear they were never going to pay."
H&S also traded with British hauliers, one of which says it is owed almost £5,000 and has taken the matter to Staffordshire Police's Commercial Fraud Division, which say they in turn will refer the matter to Customs investigators. It has emerged that the VAT number quoted on H&S's letterhead belongs to multinational Cable & Wireless.
There are suspicions that H&,S's directors. Roberta and Angelo Della Torre. are connected to a Milan-based firm believed to be trading as Euro Sped TIR after creditors reported having phone calls to H&S's London offices transferred to its offices in Milan. Gigalotto says she has since visited the Euro Sped Milan offices only to find the doors locked, and nobody answering the phones.
It also emerged last week that Trarispobank, the Italian division of the European computer freight network Teleroute, has suspended its account with Euro Sped. At least one UK company says that H&S contacted it after seeing its advert on the Teleroute site. Teleroute UK has confirmed that H&S has never been a customer of its network, raising questions as to how it got access to the information.
• Eurotir UK and its Italian arm in Castelgoffredo is in no way connected to Milan-based Euro Sped TIR.