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View Full Version : Bike protest grows into four-hour siege



Bob
8th July 2004, 00:08
A customer's protest at a city motorbike dealership grew into a fully-fledged police siege involving a dozen officers and negotiators. Staff at Bridge Motorcycles in Marsh Barton found themselves under a blockade when angry buyer Oliver Wilkinson, 36, parked his car in the workshop entrance and refused to budge.

Mr Wilkinson had travelled from his home in Plymouth to confront company bosses over £500 he claims he was promised for delays in repairing his 1600cc Kawasaki cruiser. He then parked his car into the entrance of Bridge's workshop.

Police sealed off the immediate area, leaving Mr Wilkinson in his car. Later, officers decided to call in specially-trained negotiators. The stand-off lasted more than four hours, when Mr Wilkinson was arrested without resistance.

Before his arrest, he claimed that he had bought his £8,500 new bike from Bridge last year, but later found traces of rust on some of the parts. Kawasaki said they would provide replacement parts, and Bridge agreed to do the necessary work.

Mr Wilkinson then claimed Bridge took excessively long to repair his bike, and provided a replacement which was not suitable for him to ride. He collected his bike before the repairs were complete, but still believes he is owed £500.

Antallica
8th July 2004, 00:39
Police did all that and there wern't any guns involved?

Bob
8th July 2004, 02:09
Police did all that and there wern't any guns involved?

Think in this case, as he was not being threatening, just blocking the driveway (I believe he threatened to hurt himself as opposed to anyone else though), they'd not go for the armed force. Reckon if he had made any threats against the staff, then it would have been a different situation.

I wonder what the criteria for the 'Gun Squad' being called out would be?

Oddly enough, the gunships are based just round the corner from where I work - used to be a proper, the public can go in there police station. Then it closed and was given over to the armed vehicles. A lot of them are bikers - I see some lovely bikes being ridden in/out of the building.

Wenier
8th July 2004, 18:34
well its nice to know that not everyone resorts to guns when they have disagreements, blocking the driveway was a far better idea than using a gun.

Redstar
8th July 2004, 21:00
Yo! :Pokey:
I was born in Exeter Devon and bought three bikes from Bridge Garage
Bonnie750 Tiger750(single carb bonnie) suzuki GT500A
they were villians then and stuffed up more than they fixed.
interesting that in 25years they havent changed.