'Hardcore offenders' were on yer bike

Published on Monday 25 July 2011 17:03

A POLICE crackdown on serial bike thieves has seen eight alleged "hardcore offenders" caught by officers and charged with stealing £70,000 worth of cycles in the Capital.

The force launched Operation Cello in the west of the city in a bid to clamp down on bike thefts during the summer.

The eight men have been reported to the Procurator Fiscal over around 150 bike thefts, while five other people have also been charged with buying stolen property.

Those arrested were not part of a gang, but were operating either alone or with another accomplice across Edinburgh.

Officers have so far recovered 13,700 of stolen bikes and components from those arrested, who all live in the city, and efforts are continuing to trace the other missing cycles.

It comes as figures show the number of bikes reported stolen in Edinburgh fell four per cent between last April and March compared with the previous year, from 1706 to 1635.

Inspector Stevie Dolan said: "Operation Cello has made great progress in curtailing the activities of a hardcore of offenders, and in doing so has prevented further crime.

"Bike theft has historically been a crime that is very difficult to solve, however we have targeted our resources towards gathering intelligence on known offenders, and the results so far have been very positive.

"The operation was launched with the summer months coming up, which has been a time when bike thefts increase.

"We started off targeting thieves in the Pentlands area, covering places like Wester Hailes and Oxgangs, but we quickly found that these people were operating across the city.

"They were stealing bikes, often from common stairs, then selling them through a network of friends or on websites like eBay and Gumtree.

"A number of them were arrested after we carried out spot checks on people riding bikes and found they were not the owners.

"Warrants then allowed us to search their homes and we recovered more bikes there.

"We also arrested five people for reset as they had bought stolen bikes. We've seen cases where 500 bikes were sold for 40 or 50 so it's obvious where they've come from.

"There is a ready market for stolen bikes, and we would encourage people to think twice about buying a bike if they have any suspicions that it may be stolen.

"Of course, our main aim is to prevent bike theft from happening in the first place, and we would urge people to take measures to ensure that their bike stays safe."

Ian Maxwell, spokesman for cycle group Spokes, said: "We would like to congratulate the police on their efforts. It's very encouraging that they have made these arrests and hopefully it can act as a deterrent to the more organised individuals involved in bike thefts.

"The public also have to remember that there are a number of simple precautions that can be taken to reduce the chances of being a victim, such as buying a good quality lock and locking bikes in place where they can easily be seen."

Last month, it was reported that a separate gang of thieves were thought to be behind almost 150 bike thefts in the city worth tens of thousands of pounds.

Police believe up to four individuals were responsible for the spate of thefts over recent months, targeting dozens of the high-end mountain and racing bikes which were shipped to London and re-sold.