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Following checks carried out on BikeRegister as part of London bike theft initiative Project Cycle Ops, a cycle thief has been jailed for 12 weeks and a second man has been fined for handling stolen goods.
John Holloway aged 24 was caught red handed stealing a bike in Wandsworth, south-west London, by officers from the Met Police’s Cycle Task Force and Wandsworth Safer Transport Team.
Holloway was sentenced to four weeks imprisonment for theft of a pedal cycle. He will also serve an additional eight weeks imprisonment as a result of him re-offending while subject to a suspended sentence for a previous theft of pedal cycle offence. His accomplice, Thomas O’Connor, received a fine for handling stolen goods.
On Wednesday April 24th, officers witnessed both O’Connor and Holloway approach a locked bicycle at Balham train station. O’Connor, who was on a Raleigh Urban 700 bicycle, acted as look-out while Holloway cut the lock.
Both were quickly detained by officers who carried out checks on the Raleigh bicycle O’Connor was riding. Officers checked BikeRegister.com as there was a security marking on the frame. The Raleigh was registered on the database, however O’Connor was not the registered owner.
The legitimate owner was contacted who informed officers he had left his bicycle secured outside his home address in Balham High Road that morning and had returned home to find it was no longer there. The fact the owner had security marked and registered his Raleigh on BikeRegister resulted in the bike being recovered and subsequently returned to him.
Chief Superintendent Sultan Taylor, Safer Transport Command, said: "Had the stolen Raleigh not been security marked and registered, officers would not have been able to identify an owner. We encourage all cyclists to register details of their bike on the MPS preferred cycle online registration service BikeRegister for this reason.”
