Moderators (requests and notices)

Just reading around this, and trying to work out where the Law stands on ownership - would it be up to Rapha to prove that the items were stolen, or the employee to prove that they were acquired legitimately?

(obviously things like the lapelled jacket are one-offs, so easy[?] to document, but things like socks?)

For the items such as the uniform and any that were never available for sale, then unless the has some proof that they were granted ownership by Rapha, then Rapha still own the items. That proof is easy for Rapha to obtain.

As for the items available for public sale. No proof can be made in that case. Rapha are unlikely to be able to do anything regarding those.

But in that case, I'd ask buyers to question their conscience. There are a lot of stolen bike parts out there, and if you acquired an item at a bargain price from someone who was found to be passing on other items that were in question, then you'd probably reach your own conclusion about all of the items.

It's weird that a whole batch comes forward at once, including uniform gear and rare stuff, and yet we as people in this community are supposed to assume that just because more than half is in question that the remaining things are fine. The law may not prove anything on those items, but this community has always looked out for each other and who here wants to be supporting someone who is passing on goods that they had no right to have?

I remain certain that Rapha are not going to go after people buying items, and nor will I, but clearly we don't want to support the trade of items whose provenance is in question.