UK farm at heart of car smuggling ring linked to London crime epidemic
An Essex farm has found itself at the heart of a car smuggling ring that is linked to London's crime epidemic.
Baldwin Farm sits on the green belt inside the M25 where it is surrounded by a crumbling industrial estate that is filled with old cars that have been stripped apart for scrap. The site has since attracted fresh attention after it was found to be at the heart of an international car smuggling ring.
The farm has been associated with gang activity since the 1980s with drug smuggling and gun selling taking place at the site. A recent documentary showed how an Audi A4, stolen from a North London driveway on March 15 ended up at the farm and was tracked by a car leasing company.
The tracker switched off but activated again about 30 miles away near Baldwins Farm. It later emerged the tracker could have been interfered with due to possible GPS jamming equipment.
It later emerged in Kaunas, Lithuania, and ended up in a business in the outskirts of the city called Baltic Car Trade. Channel 4 Dispatches filmed police raiding the property but they ended up finding little more than some wires as the car had been torn apart.
Scrapped parts of cars stolen from Britain's streets typically end up in the Middle East and Africa. Dispatches identified Martin Clark as the company director of the firm that owns the lease on part of Baldwins Farm.
He was jailed for six years in 2007 for his role in a £4 million car theft ring. Stolen cars have been found on Baldwins Farm with Essex Police having carried out a raid in 2020 where three Range Rovers and a Land Rover Discovery were recovered.
Several of the cars were being broken apart for scrap. Though, there are also legitimate businesses that now operate at the site, including a cement business run by the Bromley Family, although the site's association with organised crime has stretched back decades.
David Bromley and their son Simon were jailed for thee years and eight years, respectively, in 2006 over supplying cocaine with the latter also being convicted of firearms supply offences.
But Simon Bromley's 29-year-old son, Jake, said whatever happened in the past has nothing to do with how Baldwin's farm operates today. Speaking to MailOnline, he said: "My grandad has died and my nan is very ill at the moment.
"That stolen Audi has nothing to do with us and we have nothing to do with the land where the Lithuanians are." When referring to Martin Clark, who Dispatches previously reported as having the lease on the land where the stolen Audi was tracked, he added: "We rent land to Martin.
"He has a contract until 2026 and then we will review that. We do not like how he has run it down there." Jake added he and his sister Lily Tiger were attempting to make a legitimate living and feared any negative publicity could drive away clients in the future.
"I'm a legitimate man who's worked hard his whole life. I worked fitting windows for over ten years and my sister is a make-up artist and runs her business here.
"My sister and I are both young. What happened years ago was not great, but as time has gone on we both have strong heads on us." A family friend has insisted the younger generation would have been unaware of any illegality that had been going on.
Britain's Car Theft Gangs Exposed: Dispatches is available to watch on 4oD.
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