Off-road bikes are seized by police

TEARAWAY off-road riders, causing chaos across Portishead, have had their bikes worth thousands of pounds seized by police.Officers seized four scrambler bikes on Saturday following complaints about teenage bikers plaguing the town from members of the public.All of the impounded bikes, some which are worth hundreds of pounds, are now likely to be crushed.Over the past few weeks, police have received an increasing number of complaints from residents about the off-road bikers using the town's cycleways, building sites and harbourside as race tracks.They have also been disturbing local wildlife, zooming along by the harbour and forcing nesting swans into nearby electrical cables. Portishead community beat officer PC Lecs King said: "We received a number of calls on Saturday of riders causing problems along Sheepway. When we arrived we saw them driving out of the pathway at the bottom of The Vale. All of the bikes were seized during Saturday afternoon."Officers then seized the bikes and will only return them if the rider can produce a valid insurance certificate which shows they can be driven on the roads.PC King said: "All these bikes are off-road vehicles, so will not be insured to go on the road. They are extremely unlikely to be able to produce the paperwork because of this and it is very likely all the bikes will end up crushed. All of the people who we have seized have previously been warned about the consequences of their actions."PC King said the bikers were also posing a very serious safety hazard to other, law abiding members of the public. PC King added: "This behaviour is very reckless and as well as risking killing themselves, they are also risking the lives of others."Potentially, their behaviour could cause a very serious accident.