Police to develop national stolen bike database

Police are to take the first steps towards the creation of a national bicycle database to combat thefts. An estimated 300,000 bikes are stolen a year, three times the number of cars stolen.

Even when police raid warehouses full of stolen bikes, they often return them to the suspected thieves and take no further action because they cannot identify the owners.

Mark Cleland, national lead for cycle crime, told The Times that by Christmas police will have been given access to databases such as Bike...

+50% more