Sharp rise in London bike theft

London’s West End has seen a dramatic jump in numbers of bikes stolen, resulting in what police claim to be a 333 per cent rise in arrests since the start of 2009.

Bike theft in Westminster alone hit 426 between April and August this year – a 71 per cent jump from the 244 stolen in the same period last year.

In total, the capital has seen a six per cent rise in bike thefts, with 18,218 reported stolen since last April.

Ch Insp Glenn Tunstall told the BBC: "We have increased our patrols and are doing more proactive work around thefts. As a result since the beginning of the year our arrests have risen by 333 per cent.

"But in a lot of these arrests we are unable to trace the owners of these cycles, which makes it very difficult for us to achieve justice.

"So we are asking members of the public to register with firms like immobilise.com and make a note of their frame numbers and that will allow us to be more effective."