4,613 bicycles stolen from Suffolk in three years

Police. Archant © 2012

More than 4,600 bicycles have been stolen in Suffolk over the past three years – and only 11pc of them have been recovered by police, new figures have revealed.

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The numbers have led to calls for people to have their bikes security marked – especially as many would have received cycles as presents this Christmas.

The statistics, released by

Suffolk police following a Freedom

of Information request, show a total of 4,613 bikes were stolen over the last three years between 2010 and 2012.

However, only 517 of them have been recovered by officers.

In Waveney, 987 bikes were stolen but only 121, equivalent to 12pc, were recovered

The worst borough in the county for bike thefts was Ipswich, with 1,731 incidents, while the safest place was Mid Suffolk, with only 228 thefts recorded. The figures show that 114 bikes were recovered in Ipswich and 37 in Mid Suffolk.

Joseph Young, project co-ordinator for Cycle Suffolk, said: “If you have your bike marked and police find it, they can return it to you. Otherwise it will end up in a warehouse store gathering dust.

“As well as bike marking, cyclists need to have a robust lock and

spend 10pc of the bike’s value on the lock.

“Thieves are always going to find ways of stealing bikes but people can make it as difficult as possible.”

A Suffolk police spokesman said cycle theft was an opportunist crime which could happen in just a matter of seconds, making it difficult to prevent and detect.

He said officers worked to reduce bike thefts and the number of incidents was decreasing.

There were 4,613 crimes over the last three years, with 1,302 incidents reported last year and 1,725 in 2011.