No Brake For Bike Thieves In North Wales

A MAJOR initiative to help reduce bike theft was launched recently by North Wales Police at the historic town of Dolgellau in the Snowdonia National Park.

Members of the public were invited to the town’s visitor centre where the scheme was explained by local officers who helped cycle owners to register their bikes.

Similar events are being organized over the next few months, with a major one taking place at a mountain bike competition in March, where over 300 mountain-bikers will have the opportunity to get their bikes marked.
PC Dewi Wynne, Meirionnydd Neighbourhood Policing Team Manager said the new bike theft initiative would be run by his team through the Meirionnydd Community Safety Forum with support from the Gwynned Community Safety Partnership.

PC Wynne said: “The idea is for people to have their bikes registered through BikeRegister.com, a scheme which is running successfully in other parts of the UK and has seen cycle thefts drop significantly.”

He continued: “BikeRegister is a secure, police approved online database which is operated by the UK’s leading asset and property marketing company Selectamark to reduce theft and help owners recover their cycles. Since the initiative began, over 250,000 bikes have been registered.

“By using the free online registration system at www.bikeregister.com, bike details are held on the database for the lifetime of the bike. Owners also have the option of using a police approved marking kit to permanently mark the frame of the bike with a unique ID Code which is then placed on the register.”