Bike thieves behind bars - dozens of criminals caught in Cambridge sting operation

I'm not against using the money this way Alan and i have filed a FOI request to find out how many man hours and the cost of the operation was.

I think its a good idea in principle, but would just like to see the cost/conviction rate, i'll take it on the 62 reported and that cost against that of the 724 bikes difference

At the moment 724/62 is around 11.67 bikes per conviction

If i was to work it out against the 20 people locked up, it would be higher, so i'll stick to the 62, there is obviously the cost to the courts for how ever many of the 62 were processed through the court system and then the 20 who have been locked up, there is the price for having them in jails and detention centres, but i wont bother trying to factor that in.

Finding out the price and man hours is purely for my own views, but i will share it when i find out, if its not hugely excessive, i'd like to see it rolled out/trailed in other parts of the country where bike crime is also high

Well,

I live in Cambridge and my family had 3 bikes stolen in 2010, and one last year, just before New Year. I'd had no bike stolen in the previous 10 years from the same house, even though they were locked up in the same place in the same way. We had some evidence against who had stolen one bike but it wasn't enough to lead to prosecution. The recession is undoubtedly one cause. Thieves are after everything that isn't nailed down. My wife has given up on having a bike after the latest theft. We used to have 4 bikes outside locked up against various things or themselves; now we keep 3 indoors. I always double lock with D locks when I'm out, which I never used to bother with. One used to be enough.

I'm very glad this operation has taken place. The public benefit goes far beyond just bike theft as many of the criminals are probably on drugs and this gives a chance for the system to try and sort out their problems. Most crime is done by a small number of people and even if the sentences are not always strong enough, it's better than nothing.

Gkam84 is right to question the spending of public money and that's what the FOI is there for. One of the few good things Blair or New Labour did. In this case I think the money, my council tax and general tax money, has been well spent.

4 years and eight months eh! That means that fat boy will be back on his bike later this year. It would be nice if sentences were completed in full...

The worry with a question like Gkam's on the cost of the operation is that you're writing the Daily Mail's article for them: "Police waste taxpayers time and money to catch just 20 bicycle thieves."

Personally, a reduction 700 thefts strikes me as a good result, and if you've ever had the misfortune to have your pride and joy nicked then I doubt you'd be so concerned about 'trivial' reductions. We can never know how many thefts were prevented or deterred because it's not a scientific experiment, but when we see police taking bike crime seriously shouldn't we simply applaud it and ask for a similar approach in other regions?

A 25% reduction in theft is no bad achievement. Perhaps follow-up operations monitoring Internet sales thru ebay and so on could also net rewards. I'm sure there are many multiple sales of stolen bicycles thru accounts that could easily be tracked to one user. While browsing ebay for this and that I've spotted numerous sellers that look pretty suspicious for instance.

Hats off to Cambridge police force for conducting such an operation, and well done on the results achieved. Hopefully it will improve the figures for 2012 and that CPF continue with such operations. If every police force around the country took example of what they have done here, it would go a massive way to reduce bike crime. It seems many forces care very little for such crime (don’t know this from experience), so any effort is a good thing and will hopefully encourage others to take action.

It’s a shame they couldn’t throw away the keys with the toerags that got put away. I hope that the system works, that they learn their lesson and come out as law abiding individuals, however I won’t be holding my breath.

"Fat Boy"?! Obviously wasn't spending enough time on the old cocaine then!

Good riddance to the scumbag.

Frankly I'm with the fluffy one on this - any reduction in little bike-stealing scum-bags is a good thing and a drop in bike crime of 25% in a year is hefty

Oh and Gkam, it takes a brave man to tempt fate by wishing a brother cyclist ill out loud (even tongue in cheek) - I sincerely hoped you're not the one with a bike sob story any time in the near future

Call me a sceptic, but a drop of 700 REPORTED bike thefts does not mean that its a success, not against over 2000 bikes still being stolen

There are SO many factors to take into consideration and this is just the police blowing their own trumpets

1. People investing in better locks
2. People not reporting the theft because its a cheap bike
3. No figures about any other theft or burglary crimes, small time bike thief's may have moved to large crimes
4. How many attempted thefts of bikes took place? If you come back to find your lock has been half cut off, but not enough for the bike to be taken, do you report it to police?

The list could go on, All i'm asking is simply HOW much did the operation cost? Not moaning about the job they claim to have done, BUT i do not for one second think that this operation and the police force have cut thefts by a quarter in one year, no matter how they wrap it up and present it to us.

Here's an example, lets say a bike thief can nick a bike a day to fund a habit, so 365, but on the 5th of January, after selling a stolen bike, he goes and buys some drugs, in the process, he gets caught and locked up for two years, thats 360 thefts off the total right away, that may be overly dramatic, but i've read reports of bike thief's who can do upto 10 bikes a day, every day.

But in the mean time, i'll go back to drowning kittens in my spare time and hope that your bike gets stolen and then i'll just see you as a number the police spout out when trying to boost their own ego's

The police in Cambridge, where there are thousands of bikes thefts per year, work very hard to reduce the rate by a quarter - A QUARTER in one year - and you can only moan about it?

why don't you go back to drowning kittens or whatever you do in your spare time

anyway, hats off to Cambridge police - can we have some of that in south London please?

Obviously this is a good thing, but i'd like to know the cost of this whole operation to the public purse

Any chance of getting the cost from the police on the freedom of information act??

It just seems to be a huge operation to get all be it 62 people, especially Dailley, if he was known to police and was spending that much on drugs a day, surely that would have been easier to catch him that way?

I'm all for sorting out bike theft, but putting 20 people behind bars from one place does nothing to sort it out anywhere else

"Fat Boy"?! Obviously wasn't spending enough time on the nicked bikes then!

Good riddance to the scumbag.