CCTV man catches bike thief who stole his own bike!

29Aug08

Aww, opportunist bike thief picked the wrong bike…!

This came from the Kent & Sussex Courier this week:-

“A TUNBRIDGE Wells man with learning difficulties who claimed he had been able to steal a bike after cutting a padlock with guitar string clippers was given a conditional discharge this week.

David Warren, 30, of Rusthall Grange, admitted taking the bike after feeling unwell while walking home from an evening’s drinking on June 25.

The bike belonged to a Tunbridge Wells CCTV operator, who then saw it chained to a bike rack in Lime Hill Road a day after reporting it stolen.

The police, having been informed of the bike’s whereabouts, lay in wait nearby but were seen by Warren as he approached and he managed to get away. He was identified using CCTV pictures however and was subsequently arrested.

In mitigation, defence solicitor Andrew Main said Warren had intended to return the bike and had run to the town’s police station after fleeing the scene.

He even tried to tell officers what he had done using the yellow phone outside the station, Mr Main said, but had been told to “go away”.

Mr Main asked the magistrates to be lenient on his client, saying he believes he is due to start a photography course at university next month.

“It is an unfortunate case,” he said, “and I know it’s one that Mr Warren deeply regrets.”

The magistrates gave Warren a conditional discharge for a two-year period, and ordered him to pay £60 costs by way of deductions from his benefit at the minimum rate.

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