London still bike crime hot spot
New figures show capital is twice as bad as other hotspots
‘We need more secure bike parking’ COLIN BROWN, MAG
The number of bikes being stolen dropped slightly across England, Wales and Northern Ireland during 2019 according to the latest annual report complied by the Motorcycle Action Group.
The report says that data taken from the Police National Computer shows that an average of 19 bikes were stolen per 1000 registrations in 2019, compared to 22 per 1000 the year before. MAG also made Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to each force area in the UK and the best performing areas were found to be North Yorkshire, DyfedPowys and West Mercia each with a score of three bikes stolen per 1000 registrations. London still ranks as the worst area with a score of 87 per 1000. That equates to one in every 12 bikes on the road in the capital and is almost twice the theft rate of the next worst performer (West Yorkshire). Meanwhile, MAG have questioned the accuracy of the data given by the Met in the FOI requests. MAG analysed the force’s 2018 vehicle theft reports and found that the number of stolen bikes was actually 15% higher than the number returned in the FOI response.
“The accuracy of entries for make and model is poor,” said the report’s author Colin Brown. “Just one example was a Yamaha YS125 being recorded with Ford as the manufacturer. “Obviously Ford don’t make motorcycles. Interrogating the theft entries for motorcycle thefts, all Fords would be filtered out from a search. Errors like this thus lead to an under-reporting of motorcycle thefts.”
The Met Police were unable to provide a comment to MCN. This year, MAG received responses from all but six forces. Those who didn’t supply data were Greater Manchester Police, Hampshire Police, Police Scotland, South Wales Police, Thames Valley Police and Wiltshire Police.
Brown added that pressure on secure parking facilities for bikes and scooters in Britain’s towns and cities was risking a crime epidemic as people start to return to the commute post-Covid. He said: “We can implore owners to lock their bikes, but without the secure parking facilities, owners will face far greater issues with securing their motorcycles than before.”