BIKE THIEF JAILED

TWO bike thieves were caught on camera by an alert neighbour who saw them breaking into a storage shed.

Paul Ferguson saw the men acting suspiciously outside his block of flats in Station Approach, Kings Langley, St Albans crown court heard on Tuesday.

He telephoned the police and then took photographs of the men, who had gone into the bike shed armed with a pair of bolt croppers.

Prosecutor George Heimler said that Elton Bierman, 33, and 30-year-old Richard Fakes were leaving the scene when they were stopped by officers at about 2pm on 21 September last year.

The two men were riding bikes that Fakes was said to have stolen from Kings Langley station. No bikes were actually taken from Station Approach.

Bierman told the police that the bikes they were riding belonged to Fakes. He said Mr Fakes had asked him to go on the train with him from Berkhamsted to Watford, but they had decided to get off early at Kings Langley.

At the station, Bierman said that Fakes cut the locks to two bikes after telling him he had lost the keys. He said they had ridden to the flats to take a bike because Fakes had said he wanted a better one.

Bierman, of Douglas Gardens, Berkhamsted, appeared for sentence having pleaded guilty to attempted burglary at West Herts Magistrates Court on 5 January this year.

He was in breach of a 9-month suspended sentence imposed on 30 June last year for a burglary in Northchurch. He had 42 previous convictions for 85 offences. Fakes had received a community order at the magistrates court for the attempted burglary.

Defence barrister Scott Brady said Bierman lived with his partner and seven-month-old daughter and received benefits. He said no bike had actually been stolen.

Judge Marie Catterson told Bierman: "Unfortunately for you, you were spotted by a vigilant member of the public who not only called the police but took a series of photographs." She said Bierman had played a "full part" in the burglary.

She jailed him for 2 months for the attempted burglary and ordered that he serve the whole 9 months of the suspended sentence, making a total of 11 months.


February 2010