Police have wheeled into action to help a group of pupils get back on the road by donating cash to replace their stolen bikes in Brighton.
PC Grant Hebblewhite, who is investigating the theft of 21 cycles from the Brighton and Hove Pupil Referral Unit, was determined to help the special need pupils so he applied for funding from Sussex Police’s Property Act Fund and was given £1,500.
PC Hebblewhite said:
When I told the school about the donation, they were over the moon and their business manager said she was moved to tears.The bikes were worth £2,500 so hopefully this donation will go some way towards replacing them.”
The cycles were taken from a shed at the school in Lynchet Close at some time between Saturday (3 September) and 10am on Monday (5 September).
This was particularly despicable because of the loss to the kids who get so much pleasure out of the bikes, but whoever was responsible has pretty much destroyed the shed that they were in.
Some of the bikes were new and given the number stolen, we think that more than one person was involved and possibly some form of transport as well.
We would like to hear from anyone who saw or heard anything suspicious in the area over the weekend or who might be aware of bicycles being offered for sale. Please email 101@sussex.pnn.police.ukor call 101 quoting serial 417 of 05/09.
The donation comes from the Police Property Act Fund, made up of monies received by the police from property confiscated by order of the court and then sold.
A statement issued by the school said:
The pupils and staff of Brighton and Hove PRU were deeply saddened when they returned from their summer holidays to find their bike shed destroyed and most of the bicycles stolen; those that were not stolen were left without saddles or wheels.
At present we have no bikes for our pupils to use.We are working very closely with the police, in particular PC Hebblewhite, to try to find out who committed this crime.
We would particularly like to thank Grant and his colleagues at the Sussex Police Resolution Centre for a very generous donation of £1,500 that will help us to make a start on repairing the bike shed and replacing some of the bikes.
