1 week Ago
A man who had part of his bike stolen at a train station has claimed police dropped the case because he did not have a two-hour time frame of when it happened. Alex Frampton, who lives in Burgess Hill, locked up his bike at Wivelsfield Station as usual on the morning of March 12 while commuting to work. After attending a football match on Wednesday evening and returning to the station on Thursday morning, Alex found that the back wheel of his bike had been stolen which he says is worth hundreds of pounds.
Alex said: “There’s never been any problems before. “When I got back, the wheel had been taken which has got all the gears on it, all the expensive bits. “I went up to speak to the station staff.
Alex Frampton has been left frustrated after his bike wheel was stolen at a train station (Image: Supplied) “They said they had noticed it while doing their security checks. They said there’s CCTV but we can’t access it.” Alex contacted the British Transport Police, who reportedly told him it couldn’t investigate as he couldn’t narrow the theft down to a two-hour time period.
Alex said: “If something gets stolen from a railway station, you’re going to have been on a train so you’re going to have been away. “It’s not a great policy. It’s really frustrating.
“I asked if they could check the CCTV, they were not interested. CCTV cameras at Wivelsfield Station (Image: Supplied) “You’re saying to anyone that wants to commit a burglary, they’re telling them to do it at night. “Is it not the police’s job to investigate crime?” A spokesman for British Transport Police said: “British Transport Police received a report that the rear wheel of a bike had been stolen from Wivelsfield railway station overnight from Wednesday, March 12, to Thursday, March 13.
"BTP has to make difficult decisions to ensure that policing resources are used proportionately to the threat, risk, and harm of an incident. “Each crime has to be assessed on these factors as well as solvability factors and the likeliness of a possible prosecution. @BTP refusing to investigate a theft of £100s worth or property despite CCTV cameras trained on where it happened! Left my bike at Wivelsfield station at 6:55am last Wednesday and came back the next morning to find the rear wheel (all the gears and expensive bits) was gone.
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— Alex Frampton (@AlexFrampton) March 17, 2025 "Whilst we know that offences such as these can be costly, inconvenient, and upsetting, there is often limited opportunity for investigation. “Officers conduct a test of proportionality to offences – looking at factors such as the availability of CCTV and whether there is a realistic prospect of a successful outcome. READ MORE: Man arrested outside primary school after reports of pupil assaulted “In this case, it was deemed not proportionate to investigate this crime any further.
"This does not mean we will no longer be investigating certain types of crime. “Rather, we are ensuring our officers are maximising their available time, out across the network for passengers and rail staff, where they’re needed the most. “Any offence which is not investigated will still provide us with valuable intelligence, used to direct our patrols and operations.
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