Gti junior was in the NW Lakes last week on DofE and the teacher’s mountain bike was stolen from the back of the school minibus by someone who levered open a small window and climbed through. Judging from the numbers of Police warning notices posted everywhere he reckons bike theft is becoming a major issue – five lads from my mountain bike club all had their bikes stolen during the night from their campsite by someone who drove in, in a van.

It’s my belief that too many bikes are stolen to be resold within the UK and the good ones are being stuffed in containers and shipped out to eastern Europe. That belief is supported by my having sat next to a Serb on a flight to Belgrade who, when he spotted my bike magazine, began boasting about his pal in Novi Sad, Serbia, who makes a very good living by selling bikes stolen in western Europe. In countries like Serbia bikes are horrendously expensive for not a very good spec and shops won’t allow you to test ride.

So is it a gang of eastern Europeans or local scallies on a day trip out from Manchester or Liverpool?

Here’s a case from two years ago: http://www.grough.co.uk/magazine/2013/06/10/gang-of-four-jailed-for-theft-of-lake-district-mountain-bikes-worth-20000

I guess if you live in a city where the only bikes you see are crap ones chained up at stations, the ready availability of almost new, hardly ridden bikes left unattended by people in relaxed, trusting holiday mood makes the drive worthwhile.

One nicked with car rack from campsite near Keswick last week too.

Surely Cumbria Polce could fit a bait bike with a tracker?

From the other posts and stuff about recovered bikes a lot are in lockups in the UK, stripped and parts sold and frames left (the trecable part) via multiple online sales routes – brakes to one ebay account drive train to another forks on gumtree etc. Why risk/pay to container them out the country?

If you’ve got a container returning empty to eastern Europe it costs nothing to chuck a few bikes inside.

but then you have to deal with it there and try and flog the rest on from there. There are plenty of UK finds where they get lockups full of bikes or frames found by the police. Some might go there but how much demand is there for knock off high end bikes in Serbia?

Surely Cumbria Polce could fit a bait bike with a tracker?

This is entrapment and it can’t be done. The argument is that it would be the Poilces fault that the crime occurred because they put it in place for it to be deliberately stolen.

It’s utterly bonkers, but that’s the way it is. Google entrapment law and it’ll explain a bit more.

The local police near me put an iPad in a car and it was stolen 2 weeks later. The person who tok the pad didn’t get done for it, but the Police have a lead as to who may be undertaking all the ‘legitimate’ thefts.

OP, It’s probably both. It’s known in Europe (Netherlands and Denmark for ex) that large numbers of unlocked cheap city bikes get loaded into vans to be taken back to Eastern Europe. I’ve been at a bike show where the Eastern European contractors we spoke to briefly turned out to be bike thieves biding their time – the CCTV later showed the same guys wheeling out the missing bikes. I wouldn’t say it’s a speciality of any nationality of course but the links are there and there’s still the local scally / smackhead stealing bikes as always – mainly opportunists though? Organised theft of higher-end bikes from honey pot sites isn’t hard to believe, bikes stolen by ‘specialists’ with some going outside the UK, others broken for parts.
It happens at many places popular with drive-to-ride MTBers – Mayhem, Lecky hill and Bristol trails, etc.

I’ve always been very wary about bikes on Lakes campsites. It would seem to make sense that people target them as they must bring alot of nice bikes to one not very secure place. Its been a while but I think last time mine were looked to something in the car

This is entrapment and it can’t be done. The argument is that it would be the Poilces fault that the crime occurred because they put it in place for it to be deliberately stolen.

Expensive bike with no lock, maybe. Expensive bike with inadequate lock, can’t see that as entrapment whatsoever.

Loads of forces use bait bikes. Even if they feel they can’t prosecute for the theft of the bait, the tracker may well lead the cops to somewhere with a load of other stolen bikes.

Expensive bike with no lock, maybe. Expensive bike with inadequate lock, can’t see that as entrapment whatsoever.

“As understood in UK criminal law, for a person to fall foul of entrapment, a law enforcement agent would have induced a person to commit an offence that otherwise they would have had no intention to commit. “

The police simply providing a means for you to commit a crime – not entrapment. You’d have a tough time convincing a jury that any reasonable, law-abiding person would have taken an unlocked bike.

For example, If an undercover officer comes to you and says that they are in deep debt with a loan shark and their life is danger, and that they have to have your help to steal a bike. During that process you could argue they overcame your initial reluctance, then that would count as entrapment.

A German cop stopped a van and found it full of high end MTBs and noticed some had bike shop lables from Lancaster and Northwest and after arrest and seizure they called Lancaster police. Thefts were traced to a Bulgarian bike gang in Morecambe Lancaster guardian The article fails to clarify that without a routine pull by a German cop the intelligence led Policing would not have caught the gang.
My bikes were stolen too far in the past to have been in the haul 🙁

The police simply providing a means for you to commit a crime – not entrapment. You’d have a tough time convincing a jury that any reasonable, law-abiding person would have taken an unlocked bike.

For example, If an undercover officer comes to you and says that they are in deep debt with a loan shark and their life is danger, and that they have to have your help to steal a bike. During that process you could argue they overcame your initial reluctance, then that would count as entrapment.

I’d tend to agree with you, was being generous to the previous poster. I do think however it is conceivable that someone who didn’t go out purposely to nick a bike might see an unlocked Santa Cruz and form that thought on the spur of the moment.

They would still be a lowlife though, but I suppose they could make some kind of entrapment argument which some juries would swallow.

While not bike kit, a school I was working with at Easter had their minibus broken into in the lakes.

Police said it was more common now that school buses were being targetted as the staff had good kit and it tended to be left prepacked in holdalls on the back seats of minibusses.

Turds. The who thing couldn’t be more annoying!

No offence but why would you leave a bike on a rack ANYWHERE. Thats including service stations on the motorway.

How long does a piss/coffee stop take? Enough to pop a rack off the roof using a flatheaded screw driver.

I was accused of being paranoid in Hebden yesterday when I put my bike right into the corner of a beer table/wall whilst we were sat there. **** taking a chance. Bikes are nicked at race events etc etc

The more riders are reminded to always be aware everywhere the better. Again. Sorry.

but then you have to deal with it there and try and flog the rest on from there. There are plenty of UK finds where they get lockups full of bikes or frames found by the police. Some might go there but how much demand is there for knock off high end bikes in Serbia?

They get sold to Germany, France, Italy etc, and bikes nicked in Germany get sold here, France etc, anywhere but the country “of origin”.

Have a couple of these for short times bikes are on racks and un-accompanied. Its only a bolt cropper away from useless but its better than nothing.

Gang from Lancaster got recently broken up by plod. Eastern Europeans and guess that they have all moved into lakes now that students are gone.

A few years ago the Police in Surrey did use a bait bike to try and catch the local numptys that were stealing bikes.

Attractive bike at a popular location for bike thefts with officers in plain clothes at all exit point. Its not entrapment, as no individual has been targetted.

Also worth remembering, when the police find a garage full of bikes, they have to prove that they are stolen. Many people do not record frame numbers, meaning the police have no actual evidence to convict.

Cowman those Thule brackets (4) that go on the car gutters. How long would it take to pop off with a screwdriver? (you’d scratch the car but would you care?).

Caravans can get nicked nevermind a bike

Yeah, its round the frame. Not the rack. Its a deterrent.