Met police break their own record for seizing illegal e-bikes — SkimNews
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- Metropolitan Police officers confiscated more than 2,500 illegal e-bikes and e-scooters in the first six months of 2026, surpassing the 2,241 vehicles seized across all of 2025.
- The force is one of only two UK police services using portable roadside dynamometers — "rolling roads" — to detect e-bikes whose motor assistance illegally exceeds the 15.5 mph cap.
- During a single operation near Tottenham Court Road Station, officers seized 29 e-bikes and seven e-scooters; it was the seventh such operation this year, with five more planned through summer.
- Police link the crackdown to crime trends across London: neighborhood offenses are down 14% year-on-year, theft from person down 23%, and robbery down 11%, figures the Met cites as evidence the enforcement is working.
- Commander Neerav Patel, who leads the Met's e-bike enforcement, told the BBC that the force is targeting illegally modified machines used for phone snatching and anti-social behavior, not legitimate e-bike riders.
Why it matters: With privately owned e-scooters still illegal on UK roads and legal e-bikes capped at 15.5 mph motor assistance, the Met is escalating enforcement using specialist testing kit that only one other UK force currently operates — and is publicly crediting the seizures with a 23% drop in snatch-theft across London.
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