‘Treat bike theft seriously’
Troubling new research reveals motorcyclists are disproportionately affected by theft
New research shows that motorcyclists were the victims of over 25 percent of all motor vehicle thefts in the UK last year, despite making up just three percent of the total vehicle pool. An investigation by the Motorcycle Action Group’s Colin Brown found that 1.9 cars were stolen per 1000 on the road while for bikes it was 20 per 1000. ‘The reason we did the report,’ Colin tells Bike, ‘was because when we’ve talked about motorcycle thefts to the police and Home Office they’ve said, “yes, but that is a minority issue and we’re only interested in car and van thefts”. It turns out three percent of the vehicles in the country suffer 25 percent of thefts – I think this will come as news to the police and National Vehicle Crime Working Group.’ The study is based on theft statistics from 28 UK police forces and is packed with sobering details. In Avon and Somerset, for example, there were more motorcycles reported stolen than cars (794 versus 715) and a total of 7104 bikes were stolen in London – that’s more than the rest of the country put together.
Because Colin wanted to make an impact with the authorities, he didn’t split out scooters, which are likely to make up the majority of thefts. ‘Yes, there will be more small capacity bikes in our numbers,’ he says. ‘But that doesn’t detract from the fact that we’ve got a minority group of individuals who are vastly disproportionately affected by theft so something needs to be done.
‘I’m not expecting this to be a silver bullet, but I hope it will promote a little bit more understanding [from the police and Home Office] of how motorcyclists feel when their bike is stolen and all they get is a crime number. Motorcycle theft cannot continue to be treated as a minor issue.’