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Jul 01, 2025

A mystery cement mixer death, arms trafficking and the heart of a drug dealing empire: The murky past of family-run Essex farm now linked to international car smuggling ring

By RORY TINGLE, HOME AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT and JON AUSTIN 09:58 28 Jun 2025, updated 10:02 28 Jun 2025 Comments Comments The phrase 'family business' may evoke an image of trustworthiness and cosy

By RORY TINGLE, HOME AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT and JON AUSTIN 09:58 28 Jun 2025, updated 10:02 28 Jun 2025

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The phrase 'family business' may evoke an image of trustworthiness and cosy stability, but with its murky past of gun trafficking and drug dealing, this can't be said of Baldwins Farm.

Also casting a shadow over the site is the mysterious death in 2002 of Lee Balkwell, 33, whose body was found wedged between the chassis and drum of a cement mixer after a spell working at the site.

As MailOnline revealed this week, Baldwins Farm - an unassuming plot of land near the Essex town of South Ockendon - has an association with organised crime stretching back decades.

Much of this has involved the Bromley family, who own much of the land, with older generations of the clan previously convicted of a variety of high-level offences - from selling cocaine and guns to witness intimidation.

That the site has now been revealed as a base for an international car smuggling ring would have surprised few of its neighbours.

Today, there are plenty of legitimate businesses renting units at Baldwins Farm, including window companies, car repairers, while the Bromleys still run a cement business and own three gated-off bungalows.

And despite their family's history of criminality, the younger generation insist they are working hard to clear the farm of any tenants who break the law. But they face an uphill effort...

Located in the London greenbelt just inside the M25, Baldwins Farm is less a farm and more a large industrial estate covered in shipping containers and scrap cars.

The farm made national headlines last week after it was revealed in a TV documentary as a storage site for a crime gang involved in the export of stolen cars.

An Audi A4 that had been taken from a driveway in North London after being fitted with a GPS device was tracked to a patch of woodland on the edge of the farm.

Five weeks later, the device began signalling again in the city of Kaunas, Lithuania, where the Audi had been broken into parts in preparation for export.

The revelation would have barely raised eyebrows at Essex Police, who have been monitoring the site since the 1980s.

One major undercover operation, codenamed Portwing, was set up by Essex Police in the early years of the Millennium to specifically target the Bromley family and their associates.

This found the Bromleys had been selling cocaine and firearms from the farm and the Stone's Throw pub in South Ockendon.

Family matriarch Linda Bromley was convicted of drug supply, but spared jail in 2007.

A year earlier her husband David Bromley, who died aged 76 in 2022, and their son, Simon Bromley, 55, were jailed for three years and eight years respectively for cocaine supply offences, with the latter also convicted of firearms supply.

However, by far the most controversial incident at the farm was the death in July 2002 of Lee Balkwell, whose body was discovered wedged between the drum and chassis of a cement mixer.

Simon Bromley had said the pair were each using electric Kango drills and spades to chip dried cement from inside the drum with an electric light until about 1am, when he left the drum and got into the cab with the intention of slowly rotating it.

He said it spun more quickly than expected and Lee must have been ejected via a side hatch before becoming wedged where he was found.

David called 999 and paramedics and police arrived on the scene. Despite the highly unusual circumstances, Simon was not initially arrested and given time to change his clothes.

No charges followed, but Lee Balkwell's father would not drop the case and, after a series of reviews, it was reopened in 2010 and in November 2012 four members of the Bromley family and another man were arrested.

Simon was charged with manslaughter by gross negligence and failing to ensure the health and safety of Les, as his employer. He was cleared of the manslaughter charge, but found guilty of the lesser offence.

During the police investigation, a significant cannabis farm was found at Baldwins Farm and Bromley. Simon admitted to cultivating cannabis offences and was jailed for three years.

He has never spoken to the media about Mr Balkwell's death, but in 2012 David gave the family's only interview, in which he insisted it was an accident and his death had deeply affected them all.

A year later, Scott Bromley, David's son and Simon's brother, pleaded guilty to intimidating Lee Balkwell's sister, Tanya, in relation to the incident.

Basildon Crown Court heard Scott approached Ms Balkwell on April 25, 2023 at a tanning salon where she worked.

Scott admitted 'knowing or believing' that Ms Balkwell was a 'potential witness in proceedings' and attending her work place in an attempt to intimidate her and 'pervert the course of justice'.

In November 2018, Scott pleaded guilty to common assault and criminal damage to property under £5,000 at Chelmsford Magistrates over a separate incident, and was later sentenced to eight weeks in custody.

Despite the long association between Baldwins Farm and organised crime, the younger generation of Bromleys who now run the site insist they are doing everything in their power to clean it up.

Simon Bromley's 29-year-old son, Jake, insisted after the airing of the Dispatches documentary that whatever his relatives did in the past have nothing to do with how Baldwin's Farm is run now.

'My grandad has died and my nan is very ill at the moment,' he told MailOnline.

'I fitted windows for eight years and I've come down to Baldwin's Farm to help my nan. That land they are on about [in the Dispatches programme] has been transferred to me.

'That stolen Audi has nothing to do with us and we have nothing to do with the land where the Lithuanians are.'

Dispatches identified a man called Martin Clark as the director of the company that owns the lease to the part of Baldwins Farm that the car was found on.

In 2007, he was jailed for six years for his part in a £4million car theft ring.

Referring to Clark, Jake said: '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 said that he and his 25-year-old beautician sister, Lily Tiger, were trying to make a legitimate living and feared negative publicity could drive away future clients.

'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,' he said.

'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.'

In February this year, Jake and Lily Tiger were both made directors of the new company Baldwins Farm Limited, which says it was established for the letting and operating of own or leased real estate.

A family family friend also insisted the younger generation of Bromleys would have been unaware of any illegal goings on.

'Nobody has told them about the TV programme - they have no idea about stolen cars, they [the criminals] will have to get off the site,' the friend said.

Journalist Matt Shea spoke to Clark at his large detached house in Essex, where several luxury cars, including a Bentley, were parked on the driveway.

Asked whether he was aware his site on Baldwins Farm was being used to store stolen cars, Mr Clark replied: 'F*** off'.

This is far from the first time stolen cars have been found at Baldwins Farm, with Essex Police conducting a raid in 2020 that recovered three Range Rovers and a Land Rover Discovery.

Some of the vehicles were already in the process of being broken down for parts, while others were mere shells - with the chassis and wheels virtually the only elements remaining.

In 2009 and 2010, raids discovered stolen cars and evidence of rubbish, including electricals, being illegally shipped to Africa.

During a raid in October 2016, police, the Environment Agency, HMRC, and immigration enforcement discovered more than 900 stolen gas bottles worth £50,000.

The following July, the Environment Agency secured a £120,000 fine against a company called PCS Recycling for illegal waste tipping and storage at Baldwins Farm and another site.

As recently as April last year, police and environmental officials enforced a 'restriction order' to stop illegal waste dumping and burning on the farm.

Essex Police said they could not obtain a warrant to recover the stolen Audi because it's tracker was not giving a precise reading.

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