Tab Data: Bike Theft Conviction Barely Above 1%

Over the past twelve months, the number of bikes reported stolen reached 568, up on the year previous.

Despite this, conviction rates remain startlingly low. Last year little over 1%, or just 6 individual  cases, resulted in conviction. Following Freedom of Information requests, The Tab can reveal the standout statistics as well as current trends, such as price and colours of bikes stolen.

Past years have seen a steady decline in red and grey bikes reported stolen.  However, green and white shades have been in the theft ascendency, as has black. The Tab cannot confirm whether this is down to shifting bike colour trends in the Cambridge biking population or perhaps a more fashion conscious criminal base.

Although theft locations are spread pretty uniformly across the city, five hotspots stand out from the rest. Last year, 19 bikes were reported stolen from Trinity street, 12 from Trumpington street, 11 from Jesus lane, 10 from Sidney Street and  8 from Parkside. The remaining 664 reports were however, found all over Cambridge.

When it comes to price, cheap is popular. This can be illustrated by last year’s figures. It is left to speculation whether the cheaper the bike the greater the chance of theft or if there are just more cheaper bikes left on street corners.

Yes somebody did buy (and lose) a £1000+ bike.

Finally, props also to the cyclist whose black Apolllo bike was stolen on St Andrews street, who registered the value at an exact £232.26.

Illustrations by Nastja Juricev