Police in Derbyshire have released dramatic footage of a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) setting off in pursuit of a man who had been planning to steal a bike from a shelter at the train station at Pride Park.
PCSO Jim Sadler of the Alvaston Safer Neighbourhood Team was on a bike patrol on the afternoon of Thursday 23 August when he spotted 37-year-old Scott Liddle acting suspiciously.When the officer stopped to challenge him, Liddle handed him his backpack – later found to contain a pair of bolt croppers – and rode off.
The PCSO chased after he as he headed along bike paths towards the city centre, and radioed colleagues for assistance and kept them informed of the pursuit.
He made the catch just as colleagues appeared on foot from the opposite direction, who handcuffed Liddle.
The following Saturday 25 August, Liddle appeared at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates Court where he pleaded guilty to going equipped for theft and the theft of a bicycle from St Christopher’s Way, Derby earlier in the week.
He received a suspended 18-week jail sentence, but was arrested again earlier this week in connection with further thefts of bikes.
Liddle, of no fixed abode, was back in court on Wednesday when he was jailed for 36 weeks and given a three-year Criminal Behaviour Order preventing him from going to certain parts of the city centre.
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.