A bike thief in Yorkshire who sold a bicycle he had stolen back to its rightful owner has been sentenced at Selby Magistrates’ Court.

Kevin Naylor, aged 46, formerly of an address in Selby, had been spotted in August by the owner of a bike he had stolen in May last year from the town’s railway station riding it in the town.

The owner arranged to meet him, paid £30 to get it back, and called the police, reports the York Press.

Naylor, whom the court was told has a history of mental illness, was given a six-month community supervision order and ordered to pay £85 costs and to undertake a ten-day specified activity.

He had pleaded guilty to stealing the bike and to a separate count of handling stolen goods in relation to a sat-nav device police found hidden behind a refrigerator at his home, and which he said he was looking after for an acquaintance.

Keith Haggerty, defending Naylor, said that a case worker who began working with his client while he was serving a prison sentence for an earlier offence had “dragged him up by his bootlaces,” including making sure he took his prescribed medication.

However, that case worker fell ill and had to go into hospital to have an operation, and Naylor was unable to get along with their replacement, missing his medication, not going to meetings, and falling back into crime.

Mr Haggerty added that more recently, Naylor had been complying with conditions placed on him such as meeting care workers, ensuring he followed his course of medication and paying fines, and the magistrates congratulated him on having met the requirements of his deferred sentence.

