The ‘recovery agent’ who hunts down stolen bikes when police give up the trail

A dad spends his time driving around London and beyond searching for stolen bikes and reuniting them with their owners.

Bilal Ali, 25, finds the stolen bikes from locations including tower blocks, traveller camps, family homes, lock-ups, communal bike sheds and sometimes the side of the road.

He uses a special hi-tech scanner to track down the stolen bikes that have GPS trackers but it can often be a difficult job.

The stolen bikes Bilal finds are often electric and cost at least £1,000 or more.

On average across the UK, more than 150,000 bikes are stolen each year.

But more often than not, police fail to follow up and investigate if stolen bikes are reported to them.

This is where Bilal comes in, who works as a recovery agent for the UK’s first bicycle recovery service.

The service has an 80% success rate in reuniting bikes with their owners.

He told MailOnline: ‘It’s all about diplomacy. I help them spin a story where they pretend to be the victim. I just want the bike. Almost always they hand it over – and sometimes even say: “Thank you.”’

Bilal’s advice for retrieving stolen bikes is always to stay calm and be patient.

He said: ‘Bike recovery is a marathon not a sprint. Never use threatening behaviour or language.

‘Be courteous. Think on your feet. In traveller camps, make a beeline for the older members who are more reasonable. Don’t take unnecessary risks.

‘Sometimes there’s a bit of pushing and shoving, but nothing worse. Once I was playing tug of war with a bike in Dalston Market and suddenly thought, “What am I doing, I’ve got two tiny children – it’s only a bike!” and walked away.

‘I’m not the police. I’m not interested in getting them into trouble. I am not going to report anyone. I just want the bike back.’

It is not always so easy for Bilal to find the stolen bikes and one in particular has eluded him for the past nine months.

‘It’s been cat and mouse for nine months,’ he said.

‘Every now and then it pops up when it’s charged. But the signal’s weak and I’m always 24 hours behind. It’s not the most valuable bike, but it’s become personal. One day…’

It’s all worth it for Bilal when he manages to reunite a stolen bike back with its owner.

A man called Viny Bodhani lost his £2,000 black Wisper electric bike when it was stolen from the Electric Bicycle Company in Neasden.

But the shop’s CCTV caught the thief and luckily Viny had a discreet GPS tracker on the bike.

This meant Bilal eventually managed to track down Viny’s stolen bike following the GPS tracker and his special scanner.

Viny was one of the lucky ones, and had his bike reunited back with him after just five hours.

Reflecting on how it feels to help Londoners, Bilal added: ‘Very satisfying! I’m chasing down thieves. I’m taking stolen goods back to their owners.’

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