Stolen cycles big business

Press, 30 August 1979, Page 17

Stolen cycles big business

By 1

KEN COATES

in London As the energy crisis pushed up the price of petrol, a lucrative export market for stolen bicycles has started in Britain. It is estimated that in Britain this year’s turnover in stolen bicycles will top $2 million. Most of this is made ojitside Britain where the demand exceeds the supply. It is reported from Brussels that a seconds ’ hand British cycle in good condition will fetch double its original price. With bicycles now costing as much as $6OO in Britain, it is a tempting trade for the cycle thieves, many of whom are reported switching from cars. They help themselves from kerb-sides, sheds and racks. Often the stolen cycles are loaded into container vans and heavy trucks bound for the Continent. Sometimes they are resprayed or stripped down for spare parts. Some by-pass the Euro-

pean market and are sent to Nigeria, India and Pakistan where the cycle has always been popular. Light-weight cycles are in great demand in Eastern European countries and many stolen in Britain are done up and exported “as new.” The police report that more than 2000 cycles a month are disappearing from London streets. University towns, such as Oxford and Cambridge, where bicycles are popular among students and staff, also provide rich pickings for cycle thieves. Nearly $BO,OOO worth of cycles were taken in Cambridge last year and a special squad of five policemen now deal fulltime with the problem. The York police make regular spot checks on vehicles suspected of smuggling cycles and have recovered several vanloads. But often owners of stolen cycles cannot identify them because they have not memorised or written down the frame numbers.