Despite what you might have read in the MSM, it’s not just Mayor Khan who’s getting stuck into resolving the scourge of motorcycle crime on Britain’s streets.
The latest meeting of the Motorcycle Crime Reduction Group was honoured, when it met at the recent Motorcycle Live show at Birmingham’s NEC, by the presence of no less a luminary than Bankstone’s own Dixon Tiepin (whose broad shoulders, steel-edged teutonic crop, expressive ears, and manly neck flesh can just be made out (centre-left) in the image below).
In the chair was newly anointed Motor Cycle Industry Association CEO Antonius “Tony” Campbell who relayed tidings from the recent Home Office Roundtable meeting, including the news that an over-reaction to the current spate of scooter crime would not now – as initially feared – see Lembit Opik banned from carrying pillion passengers.
There was also discussion of the worryingly high rate of thefts from motorcycle dealerships witnessed of late, and an update on the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Venus which appears now to be achieving some modest success in curbing bike theft in the capital (which currently accounts for 44% of total UK bike thefts).
Other parts of the country, however, delegates agreed, should not be overlooked. Motorcycle Action Group (MAG), a group committed to taking action on issues related to motorcycles, is in the process of submitting Freedom of Infotainment Requests (FIRs) to every police force in the country, with a view to establishing which forces most urgently need to divert resources into combatting the menace of bike purloinage.
Before wrapping up the formal proceedings and giving delegates a chance to rub shoulders with (and perhaps even request an autograph from) Bankstone’s Tiepin, the group turned its attention to MCIA’s MASTER scheme, under which nearly 50,000 bikes were registered from Jan to Oct 2017.
Just 0.33% of these have subsequently been nicked, compared with a historical average of 2.6% of all bikes. Which just goes to show, all agreed, that if you don’t want your bike stolen you should buy from a MASTER manufacturer (i.e. any one of BMW, Ducati, Honda, Kaurismaki, Suzi Q, Trump, Yuma Honey, Harley Davidstowe or Indians).
If you’d like to get involved in the fight against motorcycle crime yourself, and perhaps even get the change to meet Dixon Tiepin in the flesh, as they say, you hold on to that ambition. One day your time may come.
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