Islington teenager who fell for police trap is banned from so much as touching bikes
A teenager has been banned from so much as touching someone else’s bicycle – after he tried to steal a police decoy.
Reece Robertson, 17, and accomplice Steven Dedman, 19, tried to take an �800 bike that officers deliberately left chained to a lamppost in Exmouth Market, Finsbury, on September 12 last year.
The pair were caught red-handed by members of the Metropolitan Police’s Cycle Task Force after falling for the trap.
Officers had been lying in wait and watched as Dedman loitered near the decoy for hours before Robertson turned up and cut the lock.
Robertson, of Claremont Close, Islington, was handed an anti-social behaviour order (Asbo) by Highbury Corner Magistrates last Tuesday, barring him from touching or riding any pedal bike unless he has paperwork to prove he owns it.
Dedman, whose address was given by the court as Feltham Young Offenders Institution, was convicted of theft and given six weeks detention.
Commander Adrian Hanstock, of the Met’s Safer Transport Command, which operates the Cycle Task Force, said it was a “significant decision” for the court to issue the restrictive Asbo.
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He continued: “Cycle theft is a crime that can have a considerable impact on victims, and the MPS and its policing partners, Transport for London, will continue to target those involved and arrest them wherever possible.”
There were 1,472 cycle thefts in Islington in 2011.
This represents seven per cent of all 22,464 bike thefts in London last year, police figures reveal.
It makes the borough the third worst area in the capital for bicycle thefts, behind Westminster in first and Hackney in second place.
This is the first ever Asbo secured by the unit and Roberston faces a prison sentence if he breaches the order.
n Anyone who witnesses Robertson breaching the ban is asked to call police on 101.
