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It pays to get your bike marked and registered

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The importance of cyclists registering their bike details on a cycle register website has been highlighted this week by the Metropolitan Police’s Cycle Task Force. They managed to reunite an owner with his stolen Brompton bike after finding he had registered the serial number of his bike and coded markings on a cycle register site.

The six gear Brompton cycle was stolen when the victim left it locked in Islington Green on January 20 this year. However, the owner had the foresight to have his bike marked by the Met Police in October 2011 after the visiting one of Met Police’s marking events in London.

A description of the Brompton, the Met Police’s chemical etched unique code marking and the serial number for the bike were registered on Bikeregister.com, the preferred cycle register for the Met Police and Going Going Bike, at the same time.

Bike recovery

Officers from the Cycle Task Force recovered this Brompton after a search of an address in Newham on May 18 found two Brompton’s that were subsequently identified as being stolen items.

The six gear Brompton was checked on the Bikeregister.com database and this provided details of the bike’s owner thus allowing the Cycle Task Force to reunite the recovered bike with its owner. The second Brompton found at the address was reported stolen from Aldwych on March 20, 2012.

A 43 year old woman was arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods and bailed to return to police in June.

Importance of bike registry

Andrew Knights MD of Bikeregister told Going Going Bike: ”This recovery shows the importance of applying a permanent visible mark to a valuable bike and then registering that code along with the serial number and bike details on a secure Home Office-approved database such as BikeRegister that is regularly referred to and searched by the Police.”

“A particular problem the Police have, which BikeRegister solves, is tracing a genuine owner when suspect stolen bikes are identified or recovered.”

Get your bike marked

Cycle Task Force Inspector Peter Salter, said that they were delighted to return a stolen bike to a rightful owner based on work from the Met’s regular bike security marking events across London.

“This highlights how reporting crime to police and keeping information about items registered on property databases, up-to-date, assists police in restoring property to their rightful owners.

“We advise any cyclist to follow ‘the three R’s’ – record the details of their bike, register them onto the bike register website and report any theft to the police. These are simple steps that all cyclists should take so that if their bike is stolen they stand a good chance of being reunited with it.


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