A drug dealer who shot a man attempting to retrieve his stolen bike, leaving him with life-threatening injuries, has been jailed for five years and ten months, after the cyclist tracked him down on social media and confronted him with a pickaxe handle.

The cyclist’s bike was stolen from his home in Hartlepool over the Christmas period in 2024, when he was on holiday with his family at Disneyland Paris.

In Teesside Crown Court this week, prosecutor Nick Dry said the victim then “began putting out feelers” on social media, “couched in strong terms”, in a bid to track down the “valuable” bike, which he used to commute to work every day.

“He made it plain that the return of his bike would be the end of the matter,” the prosecutor continued.

“When it was not returned, matters quickly escalated, largely again on social media, as the trail led to the door of the two defendants.”

The victim managed to limit his search to 21-year-old drug dealer Luis Fonseca and his associate, 20-year-old Derem Turner, Dry told the court this week. A “war of words” then took place between the cyclist and Turner, who offered to return the bike in exchange for payment.

The court was told that the cyclist sent messages threatening to turn up at Turner’s home and take the bike back himself if it wasn’t returned, telling him: “I’m going to go to every f***ing home, the bike better be back today or I’ll take people’s heads off.”

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On 2 January, the cyclist, armed with a pickaxe handle, and a group of friends drove to Fonseca’s home, on Hartlepool’s Cameron Road in an attempt to recover the bike.

Sensing that “trouble was brewing”, the 21-year-old fled to Turner’s home on Garside Drive, where he was pursued by the group. The court heard that in the resulting confrontation, the cyclist “advanced towards” Fonesca with the wooden handle.

The thief then immediately produced a handgun and fired a “warning shot” at the group, before shooting the bike owner in the abdomen and liver. The man’s friends rushed him to hospital, where he underwent surgery for his “life-threatening” injuries.

Both Fonseca and Turner fled Hartlepool in the afternoon of the confrontation, splitting up to evade police, before eventually being arrested in Salford and at Scotch Corner, respectively.

During a search of Fonseca’s home, police found six rounds of 9mm ammunition, bearing Turner’s DNA, along with cocaine and crack cocaine worth more than £1,500.

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The pair were initially charged with attempted murder, which they denied, with the prosecution accepting their guilty plea to a series of lesser charges the day before they were due to stand trial.

Fonseca pleaded guilty, on the basis that the victim had made intimidating threats towards him, to violent disorder, possession Class A drugs with intent to supply, possession of a prohibited firearm, and possession of ammunition without a certificate.

Meanwhile, Turner – who had been given two previous court orders for assaulting a teacher and dangerous driving, respectively – pleaded guilty to the ammunition charge.

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Mitigating, John Elvidge said Fonseca, who was given a suspended sentence in 2023 for crack cocaine possession and owning a bladed article, “was afraid” after the victim threatened to attack him, claiming that “he had no control over a bike that had been taken” and that he fired the shots because he believed he would be subjected to “serious violence”.

Sentencing the pair, Judge Jonathan Carroll said the victim had been “extremely angry about his stolen bike and he was determined to recover it”, before turning up at Fonseca’s home “armed and ready for violence”.

He told Fonseca: “These rounds of ammunition have no legitimate civilian function. In your hands they can only be used for criminal purpose. They are deadly arms and you caused a life-threatening injury.”

Carroll sentenced Fonseca to five years and ten months in a Young Offenders’ Institution, while Turner will serve 23 months and two weeks.

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In March, we reported that a cyclist in York was left “shaken” after a similar confrontation with thieves who stole his bike from outside a shop. The victim was chased, threatened, and assaulted by the youths but ultimately left in possession of his bike again, after a member of the public stepped in to help him.

While these two incidents highlight the risks that can come with confronting the potentially violent offenders who steal bikes, there has undoubtedly been a loss in confidence in the likelihood of stolen items being recovered through conventional crime-reporting means in the UK, not least with the British Transport Police in January admitting that most bike thefts are “unlikely to ever be solved”.

In November, a former Guardian journalist concluded “if it’s cycle theft you probably need to expect to solve your own crimes”, after he tracked down his stolen cargo bike after the “overstretched” police told him “that’s up to you” and “we do not attend when it’s a block of flats”.

Cyclists help police find stolen bike
Cyclists help police find stolen bike (Image Credit: Harry Gray)

In the same week, another London cyclist led police to a serial bike thief in a DIY sting operation – after spotting his stolen bike on Gumtree – but admitted they had to make “it difficult for the police to ignore” to get any help.

But despite these relative ‘success stories’ on the DIY bike recovery front, the recent cases in York and Hartlepool underline the safety risks that can come with confronting potentially violent criminals over a stolen bike.