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(Image: Litelok)

Around 70,000 bikes are estimated to have been stolen from across London last year, according to a bike firm.

This figure was calculated by Litelok - a company which makes lightweight, flexible and secure bike locks - after considering the 17,809 bicycles reported stolen to the Metropolitan and City of London Police in 2014 and multiplying this number by four as per the British Crime Survey, to include unreported bicycle theft.

The British Crime Survey suggests only one in four stolen bikes are reported to police.

Westminster had the second highest number of bikes reported stolen out of all the London boroughs, with 1,336 thefts.

Hammersmith & Fulham had the ninth highest figure, with 748 reported thefts; Kensington & Chelsea had 626; Ealing 526; Hounslow 472; in Brent 438 bikes were stolen; and the figure for Hillingdon was 296.

'Big problem'

A spokesman from Litelok said: “The figures show bike crime is still a big problem in London, it has been for many years. And with the increasing number of cyclists on London’s roads, and the UK in general, we need to pay more attention to how we can reduce it.

“According to the Crime Survey for England and Wales, only one in four people report bike thefts to the police. I think a good question to ask is why do so many victims not bother to report it? This could be due to lack of insurance or maybe lack of belief in getting their bike back.

“We’ve developed a lightweight, flexible and secure bike lock which is incredibly difficult to break through with all regular tools used by a bike thief. We’re not saying we’re the end solution to bike thefts, we’re just one initiative of many. The fact that our lock is light and flexible hopefully will give people more incentive to carry their lock with them everywhere they go with their bike.

“Buying a stolen bike contributes to the problem of bike theft and promotes criminal activity. So raising awareness on how to spot and avoid purchasing a stolen bike for sale is a good thing.”

The data compiled by Litelok came from data.police.uk, which provides data about crime and policing in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is an initiative by the UK Government to make police performance more transparent to the public.

(Image: Litelok)

The information was also from Transport for London (TfL) & the Crime Survey for England and Wales. The Crime Survey records crimes that may not have been reported to the police, including bicycle theft.

A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police said: “The Metropolitan Police Service, TfL, British Transport Police and City of London Police are working together to crackdown on cycle theft in the capital.

“We employ a range of proven policing tactics against cycle thieves which curtails their criminal activity and brings them quickly to justice. We also deploy specialist teams to educate cyclists on cycle security and encourage security marking and registration on BikeRegister.com, helping to deter thieves and reunite people with their bicycle if they are lost or stolen.

“There were 17,369 theft or taking of pedal cycle offences recorded by the Metropolitan Police during 2014. This represents an 8.7% fall or 1,650 fewer offences than recorded in 2013.

“These figures are against the backdrop of now over 600,000 cycle journeys made in the capital each day, with an increased annual total of over 222m journeys.”