A POLICE constable has been acquitted of two counts of handling stolen goods after buying bikes on Gumtree.

PC Tomas Keating, 32 attached to the Specialist Crime and Operations Command, was alleged to have bought the bikes on June 23 and July 2 2015.

He was found not guilty at Blackfriars Crown Court on Tuesday, January 17 2017.

Mustafa Dahir, 25, of Somerset Close, Tottenham, was charged with two counts of theft and two counts of fraud.

Luqman Lemoudni, 29, of Bury Road, Wood Green, was charged with one count of handling stolen goods.

The court heard how Dahir stole the two bikes from a Brompton Bike Hire Ltd docking station in Ealing Broadway on June 19 2015.

Lemoudni advertised one of the bikes for sale on Gumtree on June 22 and PC Keating responded to the advert and bought the bike the following day.

PC Keating, unaware the bike was stolen, then sold it on after advertising it on Gumtree.

On July 1 the second stolen bike was put up for sale by Dahir on Gumtree and PC Keating bought it the next day before advertising it on Gumtree shortly afterwards.

PC Keating was arrested while trying to sell the bike outside New Southgate Station on July 9.

Lemoudni had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to one count of handling stolen goods. Dahir changed his plea to guilty of the two thefts and was acquitted of the two fraud charges.

Now that criminal proceedings have concluded a misconduct review will take place.

Dahir and Lemoudni will be sentenced on February 17.