My bike was stolen from OUTSIDE the New Scotland Yard and Met Police ‘did nothing about it’… they ‘would not even watch the CCTV or monitor its GPS’

A man whose bike was stolen outside Scotland Yard and in view of the Houses of Parliament has slammed police for their lack of effort in trying to find it.

Anti-crime campaigner Dr Lawrence Newport left his bike on a street in Westminster, outside the UK police headquarters with a GPS tracker.

Dr Newport reported his bike was stolen to 101 and gave the police its location using the tracker. 

In the video he asks: ‘Is theft legal in Britain?

‘We had our bike stolen right under the shadow of Scotland Yard and police did nothing about it.’

Dr Newport points out three CCTV cameras in close proximity to where the bike was nicked. 

He said he called police, told them where the bike was and the next day he was told ‘without further evidence, they were closing the case’.

‘They hadn’t checked the CCTV, they had done nothing,’ he added.

Dr Newport claimed politicians have ‘given up’ on police, courts and crime.

In the video, he claimed ‘207,000 bikes were stolen in 2023′ and that ’90 per cent of bike thefts go unsolved’. 

At the end of the video, he provided an update saying that he had contacted the Sunday Telegraph, who called the Met Police.

Dr Newport was then contacted by police saying they were going to review the CCTV footage and trace the bike.

He added: ‘It seems if you want to get a hold of your bike, it is best to call the national press.’

The Metropolitan Police has been contacted. 

The video picking up on social media comes just days after MailOnline revealed the bike theft hot spots in the UK. 

Cycling UK also revealed a growing trend of riders in Britain attempting to trace their own stolen bikes, with some using ‘dangerous’ methods to track them down. 

Many feel obliged to take action themselves given that just 3 per cent of reported bike thefts in the past five years have resulted in a charge or summons.  

One cyclist found her bike for sale online for £55 and arranged to meet the seller with her fiancé and a friend, before asking to test drive it and then cycling off.

Another used a GPS tracker hidden in the frame to locate his bike inside a property, before being threatened when he arrived – but then eventually given it back.

But police chiefs have urged people not to take matters into their own hands given that it could put them at risk and harm a criminal investigation.

Fiona Ryalls, 33, from Bristol, was ‘heartbroken’ when her custom bike was stolen in August, but eventually found it for sale after scouring social media.  

She told BBC Radio Bristol that she arranged a meeting with the seller and took her fiance and a male friend for support – even telling police about it.

Claiming that she was not ‘dissuaded’ by officers from going, Ms Ryalls added: ‘I asked to test drive the bike and I cycled off with it. I would have felt a lot more secure if I’d had police back-up (or) even if they had offered to come with me. 

‘You don’t know what kind of person you are going to meet.’

Josh Steven’s bike was stolen in December, but the 33-year-old was able to track it down by using a GPS tracker hidden in the frame.

He said he told police and was informed an officer would be sent if he ‘could go to the property and get eyes on the bike’.

But when he arrived, he claims to have been told an officer could not attend and therefore decided to knock on the door himself, with a man opening it.

Mr Steven said: ‘I showed him the tracker on the phone. He went back into the house to get the bike and all of a sudden there was a younger guy climbing out of the window and I thought, ‘Oh no, he’s running off with my bike’.

‘He then threatens me and says ‘If you come any closer I’ll stab you’ and he gets quite aggressive.’

However, Mr Steven told the BBC he was then given his bike back by someone else in the house – but the case ‘inevitably’ did not result in a prosecution.

It comes after an unusual case that hit the headlines last year when a prolific bicycle thief was tracked down by the frustrated mother of an alleged victim who sat outside his house with a sign that read: ‘Where’s My Bike Dave?’.

David Seager, 49, stole eight bicycles in a summer-long spree in 2022 – months after Fiona Bateman set up outside his house after allegedly seeing him steal her son Graeme’s mountain bike on a neighbour’s CCTV camera.  

Seager, of Witney, Oxfordshire, was reportedly identified by social media users as ‘Dave the Bike Thief’ after Mrs Bateman made an appeal in November 2021 – but she claimed ‘not much was happening’ after she referred the matter to the police.

Fed up, she then tracked Seager down and sat outside his house for three days with her placard, to the amusement of residents. A local Facebook group even dropped off a hot chocolate and a bunch of flowers.

At Oxford Crown Court in September last year, Seager avoided jail for the thefts – instead being given a suspended sentence and an order to complete a drug rehabilitation programme.

Following the sentencing, Mrs Bateman said: ‘We had a bike stolen by him. Does that mean I should feel entitled to steal someone else’s? It’s just frustrating that he got a slap on the wrist. Where are the bikes? How about buying my son a new bike?

‘We can’t afford the four, five, six hundred pounds to replace it. He stole so my son has to now walk. But that’s OK, just as long as Dave doesn’t feel aggrieved.’

Another bizarre case back in September 2023 saw an elite cyclist turned detective spend nearly £6,000 tracking down thieves who stole four of his bikes – before driving 1,200 miles to Poland to get them back.

Damian Groves, 34, was horrified when burglars made off with four professional cycles valued at £36,000 in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, in June last year.

He passed on a series of names he had been given to police, believing they were opportunist thieves who simply broke into his garage at random – but was told that the names were not enough for the force to take action.

Determined to get justice, Mr Groves travelled across Europe to recover his bikes after they were shipped out of the country – hiring a private investigator and even flying a drone over an address in Leicester where he was told the bikes were.

Eventually, a Hungarian cycling enthusiast got in touch to say he was certain he had seen the bikes posted on a Polish sales site. Mr Groves confirmed they were his bikes and the investigator tracked the poster down to an address in Leicester.

He wrote to the seller, who replied with an apology, saying the bikes were in Poland but he could have them back. Mr Groves then travelled to Warsaw and after a 1,200-mile round trip returned with all four of his stolen bikes 48 hours later.

He estimated the ordeal cost him around £6,000 – with £2,500 spent on a private investigator, £300 to the blackmailer, £1,700 to operatives who collected his bikes in Warsaw and £1,200 driving there and back to collect them.

More than 365,000 bike thefts reported to police have gone unsolved since 2019 – equating to 89 per cent of all cases, according to Home Office data released earlier this year.