London cycling: Bike thefts a low priority for the Met Police

If you have ever had your bike stolen you will know how maddening, frustrating and upsetting it is.

It can almost happen anywhere, even if you take precautions.

I was with a friend once in Brixton and his bike was locked to a tall grey pole - presumably the pole was meant to have a road sign attached to it, but that was missing.

On returning to get his bike, he found it had been stolen. It had been lifted over the 3m (10ft) high pole, with the lock still attached to it.

He was upset to say the least. People get very attached to their bikes and it is an expensive business replacing them, with some costing thousands of pounds.

It will probably come as no surprise to cyclists, but Metropolitan Police data analysed by the criminal defence solicitors Lawtons shows that only 1% of bike thefts lead to any kind of formal sanction or prosecution.

In the boroughs of Havering and Croydon no bike thieves at all were cautioned, charged or summonsed for a whole year.

Of course, the Met has many priorities and bike theft is clearly a lowly one. But bikes are many people's main form of transportation.

Experts say many stolen bikes end up on auction websites and the sites should be doing more to stop that.

Others say bike theft can be an entry-level crime which can lead to more serious offending.

The data isn't simple though. The borough of Waltham Forest reported a 45% decrease. Haringey experienced the second-largest drop with 34%, followed by Enfield (34%) and Lewisham (33%).

When parking your bike, Waltham Forest Council are among numerous bodies which recommend cyclists use a heavy-duty D-lock along with another high-quality lock.

Yet bike theft remains a big barrier to cycling.

As the London Cycling Campaign tells people who are buying bikes: if it sounds too good to be true, walk away. It is stolen and you are perpetuating the problem.

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