You are reading a single comment by @Rowhan and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@Rowhan
After lengthy talks with an officer from Kingston police last month about my stolen Allez Elite E5 he assured me that the offence of taking a stolen bike from someone in exchange for money IS no defence and can lead to prosecution under Section 22 of the Theft Act 1968:
Dealing
The offence of handling is drafted widely enough to criminalise any dishonest dealing with property which has been come by dishonestly; for example, the original thief may also be convicted of a subsequent handling if he later arranges its sale. A codification of the methods of dealing has been suggested as receiving stolen goods, arranging to receive them, undertaking the keeping, removing, disposing of or realisation of stolen goods by or for the benefit of another person, or helping with any of those things.
Essentially at best someone who has knowingly or otherwise paid money for stolen goods (i.e a bike) has no rights to reimbursement of monies paid OR to keep said property.
At worst they could be taken to court charged with being accomplice to the perpetrator of the theft, having not checked the origins of the goods.
Either way, to sum it up - they end up with (at a minimum) no property paid for, and no money back.
The officer I have spoken to numerous times is STILL searching for my bike 2 months on just to boost peoples faith in the police a little ;)