Serial train station bike thief receives conditional discharge – but has been ordered to pay compensation to victims

A serial bike thief who targeted bicycles left at a train station in West Sussex has given a conditional discharge but ordered to pay compensation totalling nearly £2,700 to his victims.

Derrik Roye, aged 50 and from Croydon, targeted bikes left at Haywards Heath train station in West Sussex, reports The Argus.

The station, operated by Southern Rail, is one of the busiest for commuters in the south east, and has a dedicated Cycle Hub with parking spaces for 300 bicycles.

Between October and November 2019, he stole four bicycles there as well as the wheels from another bike, Brighton Magistrates’ Court heard.

The first bike he stole, on 21 October and left at the station by the woman who owned it, was worth £799.

He stole another bike, worth £800, on 12 November and three days later stole another won there, valued at £250. The same day he also stole a pair of wheels worth £500 from a bike at Horley train station.

The final theft was on 18 November, when he returned to Haywards Heath station, this one worth £330.

Initially, Roye entered a not guilty plea, but he admitted the charges in court.

He was given a conditional discharge – an order under which an offender will not be sentenced for an offence unless a further offence is committed within a stated period and ordered to pay compensation totalling £2,679 to his victims.