An insurance company is to team up with the Crimestoppers scheme in a bid to beat bike theft, it was revealed yesterday.

The move came after a meeting of the joint committee to beat bike theft, headed by Police Assistant Commissioner Mr. Wayne Perinchief and involving community and business interests.

Colonial Insurance chief Mr. William Madeiros, who dreamed up a reward scheme for the recovery of stolen cycles or arrest of bike bandits, said he had already had talks with Crimestoppers directors.

He said: "We are now looking at ways of specifically targeting cycle theft with Crimestoppers. We are all heading in the same direction and I'm sure everything is going to go well.'' Mr. Madeiros said other ideas in the pipeline include a reliable and easy-to-install cycle alarm, which he has already seen demonstrated and was now being tested fully.

And he said that a "bounty hunter'' employed to keep an eye on favourite target areas for bike thieves and track down offenders, should be on the streets by early next year.

The Corporation of Hamilton is also considering setting up "safe havens'' for cycles in the city centre, which is a prime target for cycle thieves.

The moves were welcomed by Mr. Perinchief who said around 400 bikes had been stolen from the centre of Hamilton, mostly from the few blocks around City Hall, already this year.

He said: "We are very happy with the idea of rewards. It's another prong in our strategy to bring the public and the commercial sector together in an effort to combat this problem.'' Mr. Perinchief added secure areas for cycles in the city centre watched by surveillance cameras or a security guard were feasible.

But he said that the introduction of such areas would require a lot of work before they could be set up.

Mr. Perinchief added: "Bounty hunter is a catchy name, but it's no more than an enhancement of what an insurance investigator would do in any case. We are quite happy with that, as long as there are certain safeguards.''