Any legal experts can tell me, if my wife buys a bike in good faith on ebay and it turns out to be stolen, can i be charged with handling stolen goods?

You won’t. The wife….

Don’t think so, but you will have to give the bike back if the genuine owner comes along, and won’t get your money back.
I’m not a lawyer either.
Why would you buy a bike you think is stolen?

I would never buy a bike i thought was stolen. This is sort of a hypothetical question. I dont have a wife, or a stolen bike.

Surely if the payment was made through pay pal, it would be covered against fraud?

No. Unless you know or believe the goods to be stolen when receiving them

Now you have asked the question – simple answer yes

LOL love your answer OP

No. Unless you know or believe the goods to be stolen when receiving them

But recklessness or wilful blindness will be treated as belief. So if there is no other reasonable explanation and you make no efforts to establish otherwise it may be reasonably inferred that you should have believed them to be stolen.

You won’t. The wife….

Actually, you need to be careful there is some case law where wives have been implicated in goods that their husband acquired, because their actions suggested that they too knew them to be stolen, and they were in the marital home.

But recklessness or wilful blindness will be treated as belief. So if there is no other reasonable explanation and you make no efforts to establish otherwise it may be reasonably inferred that you should have believed them to be stolen.

Yes, if he bought it from a shady chap in the pub for example. But an eBay auction? Think you’d struggle to get a charge

People tend not to be charged with handling stolen goods, the police tend to feel that losing their money and bike/car/whatever tends to be punishment enough.

Of course if you think it’s nicked you’re as bad as they are if you buy it, it’s just encouraging them to rob someone of their pride and joy and flog it to someone who thinks that just cos they didn’t nick it then it’s ok – it ain’t.

I am a little confused, you don’t have a wife and no stolen bike has been bought by the wife who doesn’t exist ?

i doubt it

the police couldnt be bothered to chase up my stolen camera on ebay, despite me having receipt/ serial number etc

I’m with Irish on this one.

I am a little confused, you don’t have a wife and no stolen bike has been bought by the wife who doesn’t exist ?

I’m confused and so is my wife. I don’t have a wife so thats doubly baffling.

Has your wife been stolen and offered for sale on Ebay?

When my stolen bike appeared on Ebay the police didn’t give a …. and Ebay cared even less.
Did you know that if you tell Ebay an item is stolen they will do nothing

sh!t, i just bought a stolen wife off eBay to add to my collection. The fact that she knows she was stolen and the fact she is now my wife, does this mean she will now be locked up and I will lose my money?

I stole eBay and my wife didn’t know.

This happened to me recently, purchased a bike recently in good faith did all my usual checks (frame number,searched forums etc) nothing came up.

Sold on eBay, police come to door with a description of a stolen bike that matches this one, the officer had a list of specifics about the bike ,ie the brand of The aftermarket pedals that had been fitted but no frame number or in fact anything that could not have been picked up from the pictures on my add.

The officer was pretty good really, I had kept the advert from where I had purchased the bike which he was happy with,no mention of handling stolen goods as could prove that the bike was purchased in good faith.
I was told to keep hold of bike while the investigation continues at the end of all this it becomes a civil matter between myself and original owner as to who owns the bike, of course I am more than happy to return the bike to original owner, as getting your bike stolen is the worst feeling as I found out for the second time last week when my shed was broken into again.

I hate to sound like an old man but if its too good to be true then generally it is. I’d leave it alone and previous posts have said, you are unlikely to be charged but you will lose the goods and not get your money back.

So the wife mentioned doesn’t exist.
And the stolen bike isn’t real either.

eBay isn’t made up too is it !?

Balls. I just bought a frying pan two top hats, and paid by Paypal gift for them 😯

But recklessness or wilful blindness will be treated as belief. So if there is no other reasonable explanation and you make no efforts to establish otherwise it may be reasonably inferred that you should have believed them to be stolen.
Yes, if he bought it from a shady chap in the pub for example. But an eBay auction? Think you’d struggle to get a charge

which bit of the parts in bold don’t you understand? if its very cheap, or otherwise very dodgy (e.g. a very rare special edition with little or no provenence) and you’ve done nothing to check its genuine then its quite reasonable for the prosecution to pursue a charge. More likely if you then come to flog it on, or you had a whole collection of dodgy goods.

which bit of the parts in bold don’t you understand? if its very cheap….

If it an Auction then that’s irrelevant.

Price is dependant on bidding activity, some things sell cheap. That how auctions work.

Thank you for the excellent answers. Very helpful.

For those confused, I’m simply trying to establish the facts of a rather fishy story I was given. I cant mention names or particulars here. The stolen bike in question is back with it’s owner so no worries there.

Legal definition … ‘A person handles stolen goods if (otherwise than in the course of the stealing) knowing or believing them to be stolen goods he dishonestly receives the goods, or dishonestly undertakes or assists in their retention, removal, disposal or realisation by or for the benefit of another person, or if he arranges to do so.’ Theft Act 1968. From my experience, if you pay “fair value” then unlikely to face charges.
If, as someone said above, too good to be true, i.e. obviously ridiculously below value, then perhaps yes. However, in an auction, I believe it would be impossible to prove.

sh!t, i just bought a stolen wife off eBay

… and she’s a bike ?

You can also enter into the world of money laundering if you know you are purchasing something below market value but that only applies to buy it now price or off a bloke in a pub. As its eBay and its an auction it would be hard to prove.

Excellent… So if there is no wife, and no stolen bike…

Then I am a lawyer, a great lawyer, a really effin great investigative lawyer, in a wheel chair,I am called “wheels” and my tv show has a really funky 70s theme tune, and I wear tweed, and my assistant (called “quimley”) has a velvet catsuit, we drive around in a rover p5 coupe charging through Carnaby Street (nonchalant to the pedestrianisation ) and my facial hair is manicured beyond reason,

and I can safely say in my capacity as an awesome lawyer that the stolen bike is packed full of microfilm stolen by a sexy blond Russian spy called “gnarleasia” ” who has sold the bike via eBay in an elaborate pot to smuggle secrets relating to a new tube set code name “1053” And is probably heading round your house RIGHT NOW to kill you with her suspiciously large hands, and recover the microfilm.

Just my two cents…