Bike thief from Bristol jailed for 20 months
One of the victims found Lewis Collins, of no fixed address, attempting to sell their stolen bike online and reported it to the police
A thief who admitted stealing a large number of bikes across Bristol has been put behind bars for 20 months.
Yesterday (June 12), 27-year-old Lewis Collins of no fixed address admitted 39 theft and handling stolen goods offences at Bristol Crown Court.
In all, Collins was jailed after pleading guilty to 20 counts of theft and handling stolen goods and asking for another 19 offences of handling stolen goods to be taken into consideration.
The offences, which often saw him cutting locks and stealing them from storage locations in the city centre, happened over a 16 month period between November 2021 and March 2023, with Avon and Somerset Police saying they hope it sends a warning message to thieves.
PC Louise Jones, officer in the case, said: “We know how devastating the impact of bike thefts can be. Depending on the victim’s circumstances such thefts can prevent people from being able to get to work and always cause a huge amount of distress.
“One of the victims in this case found Lewis Collins attempting to sell their stolen bike online and reported it to us.
“Officers traced Collins and after we attended to recover the bike, analysis of his mobile phone found lots of photographs of suspected stolen bikes on the device. We cross-referenced the bikes photographed with outstanding theft reports on our system and established Collins had been involved in dozens of bike thefts over a significant period of time.
“We hope the prison sentence he has received this week is a warning to thieves that we will always try to bring them to justice and we continue to encourage any victims who have a bike stolen to report it to the police.”