A Brussels man was sentenced to 37 months in prison for a series of bicycle thefts in the train stations of Bruges and Ostend.
The man and two others, who were sentenced to two years in prison and 120 hours of community service respectively, would team up and cut the locks of bicycles in West-Flemish train stations.
The thieves managed to steal ten bicycles between 26 May and 24 August 2019, various media report.
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This is not the first time the thieves have tried to steal bicycles, according to the public prosecutor’s office. Two of them have been spotted before at Berchem station in Antwerp, and the third thief was given a 12 month suspended sentence in Mechelen.
According to official statistics from the federal police, there were around 10,726 bicycle thefts in 2020, which is significantly lower than the 30,680 thefts of the year before.
Jason Spinks
The Brussels Times
