Here’s something useful sent in by Nick D.
Winston Churchill once described the Second World War as history’s most avoidable war; could bike theft be our most avoidable crime?
The growing problem of bicycle theft (over ½ million last year) is relatively easily tackled. A very cost effective piece of the jigsaw of deterrants, designed to prevent crime, can be utilized by any club member.
Possession is still nine tenths of the law. Look at the Home Office web-site and you will see that they strongly advise people to mark their possessions. The reason is quite simple: if the Police or Trading Standards come across suspected stolen goods, they need to have some identification on the items so that they can be linked to the crime. Otherwise they’re wasting their time, as the courts will not support any action for stealing or dealing in stolen property unless there is proof (Section 22 of the Theft Act 1968) about who the property belongs to. It is this fact which helps the thief, who will avoid items which are obviously marked.
Thieves do NOT want to be caught with any item that is marked and can be linked to the crime. There are plenty of other pickings, without ID marks, which are much less risky.
It’s not expensive to ID mark your bikes and register them FREE for life on The National Mobile Property Register, approved by the Home Office under The Data Protection Act for use by the Police and Trading Standards.
To make marking effective three things are needed:
1. Clear obvious ID marks which are difficult to remove and should leave behind some permanent marking. These are an immediate deterrent to the thief.
2. Covert or hidden ID marks which are even more difficult to find and remove.
All formats of covert ID markings require specialist equipment to detect and read them. However the technology in most cases, apart from two, are protected by patents for the companies who make them and therefore not subject to backing by the law. The two exceptions are UV marking and Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) microchips that conform to the International Standards Organisation ISO 11784/5 FDXB standard. These ISO chips are backed by EU legislation which under UK Statutes passed in 2009 are enforced by Trading Standards who are required to have the equipment, scanners, to detect and read these ID.
3. Registration of those ID marks on a database approved by the Home Office under the Data Protection Act for use by the police and trading standards. With additional facilities for the general public to check an ID mark and see if it has been logged as stolen yet maintain the secrecy of the owner’s identity.
Our ID marking kit is an ID marking system backed by EU legislation. To see the kit go to our web site and watch the Youtube video
http://www.rbs-propertymarking.co.uk/cycles_67.html
A ‘Standard’ kit provides enough materials for two bicycles:
2 x RFID Covert microchips
4 x Holographic Anti-Tamper ID Tags
2 x Cycle Passports to log the details
Price £24.99 inc vat and p&p
Order from our secure web-shop:
www.rbs-propertymarking.co.uk
or by phone from 01474 350883