Police in Manchester have deployed new tactics in order to cut down on anti - social riding of mini motos.
The Manchester Police force have invested in quad bikes in order to track down the illegal riders, from which they say they have little chance of escape.
They have already caught several bikers, one of the patrolling officers telling us the story of when he caught a 14 year old illegal mini moto rider whos bike Police have said was a danger to him and the public.
Pc Ferguson described the bike, which was taken away to be crushed, as a "death trap". It had:
* An engine astonishingly held together with a bootlace.
* Bald tyres.
* A welded-on set of handlebars.
* A broken seat and failing brakes.
* An improvised mudguard to stop the exposed engine from burning the rider's legs.
The boy was found to be from a nearby estate, he was charged with under age driving and driving without insurance. He was then told thatwhen he reaches 17 he is liable to have penalty points on his licence and be unable to drive.
The police believe that this bike would have started off life as a christmas present and then got passed through a few hands and had a few little modifications done here and there and turned out like that.
"It is unbelievable that someone would ride such a thing. We are not being killjoys.
Pc Ferguson said: "We need to make as many people as possible aware that we have these quad bikes and if they see someone who they suspect is riding an illegal vehicle they can contact us."
i think its just stupid i
i think its just stupid i think we should be aloud to ride are mini motos in parks when there arent many or any people around and on fields where there are hardly any people ther. round my area we get kicked off the street for playing football and then when we do go over the park theres dog pooh on the pitches and people filming so i think we should be allowd over there every now and thenn to ride them. i dont mind if they say u can go over there 2 times a week or if they said once a week for 1hour. round my area we cant even have water fights with out the police coming round and telling us to go and play over the park. if the police could reason with us or even the council to let us ride our mini motos for a little bit over the park while its empty or something.
i hope something will happen. MIC