About Us

Bike theft in a City is part of City life, isn’t it? Why should it be? That bike is yours, you worked hard to pay for it and nobody has the right to help themselves to it. You pay your way, and everyone else should do the same.

Back in 2017, the red-tops were full of stories of the local bike theft gangs that plagued the City seemingly stealing and burning out bike without recourse. It was around this time that a biker approached Avon and Somerset Police with an idea of involving the Motorcycle Community. What followed was an Independent Advisory Group set up to advise and combat motorcycle theft, and the growing issue with vigilante groups that were hunting the thieves. No other Police Force had ever attempted such a venture, and it paid off. 

The IAG formed of local bikers, with everything from IT, Banking, Ex-Police Officer and a local Businessman. These all brought their own diverse skills to the table and formed an enviable team that would meet regularly as part of Operation Buell. 

ASP had admitted that they had let the community down, under estimating the number of bikers, or the acknowledgment of it being a community, and that they wished to be held accountable and do what it took to make things right. 

That is exactly what we did and continue to do – it goes for both sides, the Community as well as Police. You’d be wrong to think it was all tea and biscuits, there were some very difficult meetings on both sides. The results were very positive, with increased funding for Police, huge increases in convictions and a greater bonding with the Motorcycle Community and Police.

Seven Years on. Success, Growth and that Pandemic

It was history in the making – the above article was written all those years ago when we first started out as a regional group in Bristol. The success saw thefts drop by an astonishing 76%, and at meetings we regularly had reports from the Inspector that another Force area had been in touch wanting to know how the figures were improving so fast. This would lead us to meet or talk with a number of forces: Dorset, Wiltshire, South Wales, South Yorkshire to name a few. Now representing the whole of the UK and there to help communities blighted by motorcycle theft and related crime.

Transforming into the UK Bike Theft Awareness in 2019 we embarked on the route to becoming a charitable concern as it had been personally funded by one founder until then. To enable us to continue we needed some financial help and to date have a small number of people that donate to keep the costs of the website alone as low as possible. It enables us to operate a multi-faceted approach to deal with theft and related crime by not only holding the police to account and educating owners at shows to secure their machines properly, but to reach out to the communities affected by the thieves actions as well as the youths groomed to do the donkey work. We work with Communities at all levels.

      It is never just about locking up thieves, it is working with communities and engaging with these youths that are groomed into these gangs, thinking they have no other options. It may seem a soft approach, and in the early days I would likely have agreed.

 However, we are always objective and always learning and if you fail to acknowledge that element of youth engagement, then you are dealing with an endless escalator full of replacements each time one is locked up. These kids are expendable to the gangs, they have no loyalty to them at all.

 We need to prevent them getting on the escalator in the first place, and to do that – we need to show them that they do have better options. Our objective, is to make owning and enjoying a motorcycle a safer and that includes dealing with what makes theft an option.

Breaking that cycle is the long-term aim. To cut the supply of youths that are used as worthless collateral. We have seen youths being led down this spiral of crime and redirected them into more productive routes they thought were not open to them due to qualifications or opportunity. Guiding those that can be helped, and extending the sentences of those that had gone too far down the line in a hope that would enable prisons to have time to do what they were intended for – to rehabilitate. No prison can engage with inmates if they are only there a short time.

 If we are footing the bill for the constant prosecutions and prison terms then we may as well get our money’s worth and try to rehabilitate them and that means the need to continue to campaign for longer sentences. We also need to ensure Prisons do rehabilitate those offenders. If we do not, we are not only failing the public, but the offender as well.

So we need to put efforts into making theft more difficult, but also to engage with the youth that find family in these gangs and are led astray. This does not mean your child or nephew is safe as you are from a ‘good’ family. We have seen thieves from very comfortable backgrounds with brothers and sisters practicing Doctors, Solicitors – even the son of a millionaire businessman! There is no text book bike thief – but at UKBTA we have developed a particularly effective set of skills in dealing with it