Thats a b@stard Ian, I hope they get the scumbags.
I've probably told this story on here before. I know somebody who had a Buell knicked. After a couple of days, they spotted some low life's on the bike wheelying and doing loads of daft stuff and managed to follow the back to a local house. They informed the police who raided the place and found about half a dozen stolen bikes in the garage. The Buell was returned but unbelievably the police did not prosecute. If your bike gets knocked you really are o your own I'm afraid. Makes you wonder what you pay taxes for. 
i can echo this experience. back in the 1990s a mate had his gsx600f nicked, he was a mag member and we put out the posters offering a reward and kept chasing plod, but nothing happened and the trail went cold. then one night i was driving home and outside a shop in preston was parked a familiar looking bike, gsx600f, nexxus exhaust, screwdrivered ignition, number plate made from them stick on letters they sell in diy shops, it set all my bells ringing so i called the owner, (pre mobile days would you believe) and he came out, but it had gone. a look round the back and there it was in the guys yard, he came out and was trying to distance himself from it. i spotted pc plod in a van driving up the road and flagged them down. bingo, it was the nicked bike, it was in his yard, he admitted that he had been using it every day since he got it (but stopped short of saying he nicked it) his prints were all over it, he had no licence, no insurance, the reg number he was using was from a scooter (not his, he just spotted a scooter and wrote the number down then made himself a plate, (remember this was pre anpr days) and pc plod turned out to be a guy i went to school with, so he told me the guy was a petty criminal with a long list of previous including several of nicking bikes. he admitted all this to plod in an interview, so we waited to see what would happen. 3 months later my mate got a letter saying that the cps werent proceding with a prossecution due to a lack of evidence. yes you read that right, a lack of evidence, even though he actually admitted that he had been using it and he knew it was stolen and he had previous form for similar. i was left wondering at the time, just how much evidence would they need if what they had wasnt enough?
