Only 1.3% of bike thefts in Kingston lead to charges

By: Anna Fortunata Gaspardo

Photo by: Nathanael Desmeules/Unsplash

Bicycle theft is effectively legal in Kingston, as a freedom of information request revealed just 1.3% of stolen bike cases have resulted in a charge.

In the last five years 2,123 bikes have been reported stolen in Kingston – but only 27 cases led to offenders facing prosecution.

“I have seen someone steal a bike, outside my old flat. Two people fully dressed in black came to steal an electric bike; I saw it and started recording it because I wasn’t going to go up to them when they had an electric chainsaw. When the police came, I went up to them and showed them the video,” says Giulia Galatà, a third-year architecture student at Kingston University.

According to a survey conducted by the Royal Borough around 1500 people cycle daily in Kingston, describing it as a more enjoyable, eco-friendly and inexpensive form of transport.

“I’m always on edge about this especially in major cities. I’ve always gone for a cheaper bike because I know it’s less likely to get stolen,” says Frankie Diedrichsen, a second-year graphic design student: “I have a really heavy-duty lock, it’s a full metal chain lock, but this never stops someone if they really want your bike. Angle grinders and bolt cutter can get through most locks, but at least this stops most people from thinking about stealing it.” 

Cyclists take precautions every day to try and prevent this from happening to them, using big locks or even by scraping all the paint off their bikes in a bid to make them look less desirable. The cheaper, more beat up your bike is, the less likely you are to suffer its loss.

Over the last five years, the number of offences has gone down drastically, from 486 incidents in 2021 to 260 in 2025. This change doesn’t mean much to victims since, last year, out of the 260 reported bikes stolen, only two charges were filed to the MET Police, in the Kingston Borough.

Even without knowing the specific numbers related to this crime, many people are deterred from reporting the theft, due to the small success rates MET police has with apprehending suspects. 

“I would report my bike being stolen, but honestly I wouldn’t expect anything to come of it sadly,” says Diedrichsen.

Galatà says: “I’m very scared of [my bike being stolen] because it is very sentimental to me, it was my mother’s, and it’s 25 years old,” she adds: “I would 100% report it if it got stolen, and I would do anything to find it again.”

According to Cycling UK, there has been a “growing trend” in people attempting to trace their own bikes, since more than half of stolen bikes end up being sold online, between Facebook Marketplace, E-Bay and other major online selling platforms.

“I feel like [reporting the theft] wouldn’t lead to anything because I think the police has better things to do, so they wouldn’t care about my bike,” Galatà says.

The number of thefts has been reduced to half by MET Police in five years, but the percentage of suspects identified has gone down from 20% to 9%.