A CYCLIST who had his bike stolen only to find out it had been resold by a Cowley Road shop, has warned others to be on their guard.

Ashley Thorpe could not believe his luck when, five months after his racing bike was taken from St Clement's, he stumbled across it chained outside Oxford International College in London Place.

The 30-year-old said: "The bike had been stolen in November so when I saw it in April I couldn't believe it.

"I snapped my bike lock on it immediately and called the police.

"I fully expected the thief to be the person who was using the bike but while I was waiting the man came back and it turned out he had bought it from Cycle Kings on Cowley Road."

Police took the bike away while they investigated what had happened, as it was classed as a civil dispute.

It was finally returned it to Mr Thorpe last week – almost a year after it was stolen.

He said: "Police have stopped their investigation.

"The reason the store gave for their sale was that someone had brought the bike in to be fixed and never came back for it but I don't believe any legitimate business would decide to sell a bike on based on that."

"I only paid about £200 for my bike but I'd had it for three years and had modified it for my needs. It was a commuter bike but I also used it for triathlons.

"This is probably my biggest hobby and it was awful having to replace it."

The East Oxford resident, who works for a publisher in Jericho, posted a warning on the Facebook page of the Cowley Road Condors cycling group, saying: "I'm worried it may have happened to other people."

Cycle King Oxford branch manager, Keith Gosling, has denied the store did anything wrong.

He said: "Somebody brought the bike into us for repair and then never came back to collect it despite numerous calls.

"We have a policy where, if a bike isn't collected after three months, then we sell it to recover costs.

"We had no reason to believe it was stolen."

He added police had investigated the case and were also satisfied the business had not done anything wrong.

Mr Gosling said: "The man who owned the bike now has it back and the chap who bought it from us has had his money back.

"The only ones who have lost out are us because of the money we spent doing work on it."

He added what had happened was 'very unusual' as the shop did not generally buy bikes to resell unless they had originally been purchased from the shop and there was documentation to prove it.

Mr Gosling said: "We have hundreds that come through for repairs and we just take down a name and number for collection."