Almost £50,000 worth of stolen private hire bikes have been recovered by police in London.
The Met Police's Op Venice team joined forces with Transport for London and private hire bike company Lime to recover 48 stolen hire cycles totalling nearly £48,000 and five lost or stolen mopeds.
Three people were also arrested following the week-long police action which concluded on June 5.
A 46-year-old man was arrested for robbery and has since been charged and remanded in custody.
A 45–year-old man was arrested for handling stolen goods and theft of a cycle. He has also been charged for both offences and bailed to appear at court at a later date.
Meanwhile, a 19-year-old male was arrested for handling stolen goods and possession of cannabis.
He received a Young Offenders Team referral for the possession of cannabis. He received no further action for handling stolen goods.
DCI Shaun White, the Met’s lead for Operation Venice said: “In the space of five working days, the Met, TfL and Lime have been able to recover almost £48,000 of stolen private hire bikes that can now be returned to the appropriate businesses.
“We’ve also been able to recover a number of lost or stolen mopeds and even a van that Hampshire police were looking for in connection with a murder investigation they are running. All in all this has been an excellent result for such a short space of time.”
Eleven warnings were issued to people in possession of stolen TfL cycle hire bikes.
Siwan Hayward, Director of Compliance, Policing and On-street Services at TfL, said: “Given the role of cycling in London’s safe and sustainable recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, bike theft is an especially worrying crime today.
"We continue to work closely with the Metropolitan Police Service to tackle bike theft and will do all we can to help ensure the risk of crime doesn’t deter people from cycling.
“We’d like to remind the public that we’re using GPS-tracking on our Santander Cycles scheme and stolen bikes will be retrieved. We hope that these arrests send a strong message to offenders that theft won’t be tolerated.”
Bike owners are encouraged to visit the Met’s website for crime prevention advice, which includes tips such as using a secure D-lock and registering their bike at bikeregister.com.
