Gordon Blackwell occasionally posted here. He also returned two bikes to Ken Maude which made him seem legit. Of course that's how scams work. You treat a few people right and gain their confidence and then use that to profit off the misfortune of others.
Anyone who has lost a bike to theft recently should pay attention to this.
Bike 'rescuer' admits to fencing, gets two years
Gordon Sinclair Blackwell, 41, was handed the sentence Friday.
BY JAMES WELDON AND JANE SEYD, NORTH SHORE NEWS
A North Vancouver man who had claimed to be operating a "bicycle recovery service" has been sent to jail for two years after pleading guilty to 36 charges.
Gordon Sinclair Blackwell, 41, was handed the sentence by Judge William Rodgers of the North Vancouver provincial court Friday after he pleaded guilty to three dozen counts of possession of stolen property.
Blackwell was arrested Jan. 6 at a garage in Surrey. Until last fall, Blackwell ran an ostensibly non-profit organization called www.bikerescue.org, which claimed to buy unusually inexpensive bikes from sellers online and on the street, and then [HTML_REMOVED]#8212; if they turned out to be stolen [HTML_REMOVED]#8212; attempt to reunite them with their owners.
North Vancouver RCMP became suspicious of the operation in September after an investigation into a spike in bike thefts in North Vancouver turned up connections to Blackwell's New Westminster warehouse. On Nov. 14, police raided the facility and seized more than 150 bicycles.
In court Friday, Blackwell acknowledged the bike-rescue business was little more than a fencing operation.
In handing down his sentence, Rodgers described Blackwell as a career criminal. Blackwell has 24 previous convictions for fraud.
Mallory Haun Stokes, a woman charged with Blackwell for a more limited role, has not yet entered pleas to charges against her.
Investigators have returned almost 40 of the seized bicycles to their owners. Anyone whose bike was stolen between 2008 and fall 2009 is asked to contact the North Vancouver RCMP by e-mail at [email protected]. Inquiries should include make, model, components, accessories, unique markings and, if possible, a photo of the bicycle.
Copyright (C) The Vancouver Sun
There is also a thread discussing his legitimacy from back in early 2008 here.