Scotland sees jump in bike thefts during lockdown

The number of bikes reported stolen in Scotland rose by nearly 20% during lockdown, new figures show.

There has been a big increase in people cycling over the past 18 months, as shops struggled to keep up with demand.

This has been followed by a rise in cycle thefts - and there is evidence that organised crime gangs are now targeting pedal and e-bikes worth thousands of pounds.

Police Scotland says it has put more resources into tackling the problem.

Figures released to BBC Scotland under freedom of information laws show that, on average, just one in 10 bike crimes is solved every year.

Concerns have also been raised that marketplace websites are not doing enough to stop people selling stolen cycles, with new research suggesting some sellers on Gumtree are using multiple names and accounts to sell hundreds of bikes a year.

What is happening in your area?

A breakdown of the cycle thefts has been fed into this interactive dashboard.

The dashboard allows you to enter your postcode and see how many bike crimes have been reported and solved in your neighbourhood, and where the theft hotspots are in each council area.

The data shows;

• The number of bike crimes notified to Police Scotland had fallen from 6,056 in 2017/18 to 4,600 in 2019/20.

• But in 2020/21, the number rose again to 5,470 - an 18.9% increase on the previous year

• And Scotland's two biggest cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow, had 19 of the 20 worst council wards for reported bike crimes last year

This reflects the high number of bike users in both cities, and that bikes left in communal spaces such as tenement stairwells are a frequent target for thieves.

The figures also showed that Leith Walk in Edinburgh saw the number of reported cycle thefts more than double over the last five years to 211 in 2020/21, while Govan in Glasgow jumped from 69 in 2016/17 to 114 last year.

One in 10 bike thefts solved

Away from the urban areas, Police Scotland said outdoor activity centres and specialist bike shops have been targeted by organised crime gangs since the lockdown.

The growth in popularity of electronic bikes, some of which can cost up to £5,000 to buy new, has been partly driving this trend.

Detection rates vary across the country but, on average, Police Scotland solve around one in 10 bike crimes reported each year.

Food delivery rider Antonio Tabares had used his new e-bike just once for work when thieves cut through the lock last month and rode his livelihood away.

Antonio Tabares said he was "devastated" by the theft of his brand new bike and disappointed by the police response

The 29-year-old's parents-in-law had bought him the bike as a way of clearing debts racked up during lockdown.

"It was locked up outside the Edinburgh Book Festival site in the city centre - so a busy spot, and I thought it would be safe," explains Antonio, who is originally from Colombia.

"I really appreciated what my parents-in law were doing for me and I can't face telling them the money they invested in my bike is lost.

"The impact was devastating because this bike was not only my means of making income but also my transport. I don't really know what I'm going to do."

A friend is allowing Antonio to use his bike when he's not using it so he can continue to deliver food, but this has limited the time he can work.

Antonio on his bike the day it arrived from China

Antonio has offered a £100 reward for any information about his bike. The Heriot-Watt University student said he did this because he was "so disappointed" with the police response.

"The first thing I was told by the police officer was to lower my expectations of getting my bike back," he said. "I could hardly believe it."

Antonio's e-bike was imported from China and is not for retail sale in the UK.

In the days after it was stolen, he found his model for sale on Facebook at an address in England.

Antonio says he has passed this information on to the police, but has not heard back.

Bolt cutters and power tools stashed in rucksacks are often used by thieves to cut through bike locks

Country Cycles, in the Stirlingshire village of Killearn, is one of the bike shops which has been targeted by thieves.

The fact that the shop is in an old bank branch with bars on the windows was no deterrent for the four masked raiders who smashed in the door.

CCTV footage shows how the gang were in the shop for less than a minute before bundling five e-bikes worth £35,000 into a waiting white van.

"They know what they are doing, it is organised," says shop owner Keith McLellan.

"It's not just someone randomly driving by. They've been in the shop before and have an idea of where things are and what they can grab quickly and get back out.

"If you're stealing an e-bike at £5,000, even if you're only getting 20% of that then it's still lucrative."

Keith McLellan's shop has been targeted

Mr McLellan said replacing the stolen bikes was "near impossible" due to the lack of supply.

He has had other shops broken into before, and sees cycle crime as "a depressing fact of life now" for both cyclists and retailers.

He added: "The range of locks you have to have now is the equivalent of what you need for a motorbike."

Police Scotland said its nationwide 'Pedal Protect' scheme, launched on 26 March, had helped to reduce levels of bike crime in recent months.

The force said cycle owners need to consider the types of locks they are using; where bikes are being stored; and take part in the UK-wide bike registration scheme, which has just under 60,000 bikes in Scotland registered so far.

This compound at a police station in Edinburgh is one of the places where the force stores lost and stolen bikes

Det Sup Joyce Greenhorn told BBC Scotland that bike theft was treated with "as much importance as any other crime".

And she said the force had responded to the increase in reported bike crime.

She explained: "Over lockdown, the use of bikes was obviously increasing and access to them on the open market was limited too, so being able to get hold of bikes wasn't as easy.

"We did see an increase in the level of bike thefts that did raise some concern, and as a result of that we put in place the Pedal Protect scheme. That was a focus on enforcement, but more so about prevention and security advice."

Det Sup Greenhorn said there were "links to serious and organised crime groups", with some bikes stolen to order because of their value, though she added that many thefts were opportunistic.

The acquisitive crime lead officer also said officers investigating cycle thefts can have "frustrations" with the speed and usefulness of the market place websites where stolen bikes are often sold on.

Ben Jourdan, a computer science PhD student in Edinburgh, has spent the last 14 months tracking bike adverts placed on the Gumtree website looking for what he describes as "suspicious behaviour".

Setting up a server in his parents' spare room, Ben captures the information available on the Gumtree site to look for unusual patterns of behaviour from accounts selling bikes.

This includes high-volume posters controlled by the same entity, where sellers are repeatedly changing their username and uploading adverts for a large number of postcodes, or people insisting on "delivery only" for the bikes.

He explains: "If you or I make a Gumtree account we might only have one name and keep that forever, but I've found accounts which change their name every week - both male and female names - and have varying locations. I've seen hundreds of postcodes used by single entities.

"In my view, if you are using five or eight accounts at the same time to put up bike ads I'd say that's pretty suspicious behaviour."

Student Ben Jourdan said platforms like Gumtree could do more to track suspicious behaviour

Ben's analysis suggests £500,000 worth of bike adverts are uploaded to Gumtree from across the UK every day.

The 23-year-old's research cross-references data from adverts, like phone numbers or addresses, to link the same sellers to multiple accounts.

For those selling high volumes of cycles, the analysis also looks to see if the person is also selling other items - like mobile phones or power tools - in order to try and eliminate genuine bike shops operating on Gumtree.

He explains: "These are things you would not expect to buy in a bike shop so it begs the question, if they are not a bike shop who are they, and why is Gumtree not asking who are they as well?"

The research is a hobby for Ben, given his data science background, but he argues it would be simple for Gumtree and other market place websites to run a similar analysis and introduce more checks and account verification methods.

Ben's work has also assisted some bike theft victims.

Last year he helped an Edinburgh man work out who was selling his stolen cycle on Gumtree. The information was passed to the police, who got the bike back and made an arrest.

Bike theft 'scourge'

A spokesman for Gumtree said the platform "works closely with law enforcement to support investigations into stolen bikes and help secure convictions for criminals who abuse our platform".

He said: "We do not tolerate the listing of stolen items on our site and share the public's concerns about the scourge of bike theft in the UK.

"We encourage users to report anything suspicious to us through the 'Report' button that sits on every ad on our platform, and our dedicated safety team will then investigate it and take the necessary action, including blocking offending users and removing suspicious ads.

"If you are concerned that an item you're viewing is stolen, don't buy it - report it to the police or call 101."