Man Who Stole Chiswick Nurse's Bike Jailed
Police had initially been reluctant to prosecute saying he had been entrapped
Joey's bike was stolen after her 12 and a half hour shift. Picture: Twitter/Jeremy Vine
|
The man who stole a Chiswick NHS worker’s bike while she was on a twelve and a half hour shift has been jailed.
38-year-old Nicky Ptohopoullos of Old Montague Street, Whitechapel pleaded guilty on Friday 5 June at Thames Magistrates’ Court to theft of a pedal cycle.
He already had a suspended sentence and was therefore given a custodial sentence of 32 weeks. He was also ordered to pay £200 compensation.
The Metropolitan Police had initially been unwilling to investigate when Joey, who works as a mental health nurse at Mile End Hospital, reported the theft to them. They said that the efforts made by her and her boyfriend to trace the thief constituted entrapment and a successful prosecution would not be possible. Joey had found the stolen Pinnacle Gabbro Racer for sale on Gumtree and contacted the seller to establish his identity.
However, after the case received publicity, the police had a change of heart and arrested Ptohopoullos. Detective Superintendent Andy Cox who heads up the Met’s Vision Zero Road Safety campaign has said that he will look into initial response and “consider any potential learning needed”.
Gumtree also proved initially unwilling to take action. After the ad remained up after Joey reported that it was hers, she asked her friends to make similar notifications online. The ad was only removed after we contacted Gumtree. Their spokesperson said, “We do not tolerate the listing of stolen items on our site and were sorry to hear about Joey’s experience. The ad has been removed and our dedicated safety team are looking into this matter and will be taking the appropriate action, which can include blocking the user from our site, sharing information and working with police to aid their investigation. We strongly urge anyone who suspects they have found their stolen property listed on our site to do as Joey has done, contact the police and report it to us using the ‘report this ad’ button that appears next to all ads listed on Gumtree.
Her case had been taken up by her neighbour, the broadcaster Jeremy Vine, who posted a video on Twitter in which Joey told her story and he urged the police to take action.
My brilliant neighbour Joey is a mental health nurse.
— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) June 3, 2020
Last night her bike was stolen.
It turned up on Gumtree - but when she gave police the name and address of the thief, they said they couldn't help because her investigative work would make it entrapment.
This is NUTS. pic.twitter.com/AmyxsWGzWi
Joey told him, “It’s just very frustrating and obviously after a very long shift you’ve got a long bike ride home and to not be able to come home unless taking public transport which obviously is a risk for both me and my patients.”
June 9, 2020
