MPS seizes record 2,500 illegal e-bikes and e-scooters in seven months
The Metropolitan Police Service has seized more than 2,500 illegal e-bikes and e-scooters during the first seven months of 2026, already exceeding the total number removed from London’s streets during the whole of last year.
The force said the record number of seizures reflects its continuing crackdown on illegally modified two-wheelers, which are frequently used in offences including phone snatching, robbery and drug dealing.
The Met is also among the first police forces in England to deploy “rolling roads” – portable roadside testing equipment that enables officers to assess the speed of suspected modified e-bikes and e-scooters and determine whether they comply with legal requirements.
Commander Neerav Patel, who leads the Met’s response to e-bike-enabled crime, said the combination of new technology and intelligence-led policing was helping to improve road safety and reduce offending.
“We are continuing to come down hard on those who use illegally modified e-bikes, whether to drive dangerously or to commit crimes such as phone snatching and drug dealing,” he said.
“By combining the use of new technology like ‘rolling roads’ with an intelligence-led approach to precisely target hotspot areas, we have cleared thousands of two-wheelers from our streets and crushed them.
“What we are doing is clearly working. Phone theft in the West End, increasingly perpetrated by thieves riding illegal e-bikes, has nearly halved.”
The latest figures mean the Met has seized more than 4,750 illegal e-bikes and e-scooters since the start of 2025.
During an enforcement operation in Camden on 24 July, officers using the rolling road equipment seized 36 vehicles and made two arrests.
The force said tackling crime involving illegally modified two-wheelers forms part of its wider neighbourhood policing strategy. It cited recently published figures showing neighbourhood crime across London fell by 14 per cent in the year to June, including a 23 per cent reduction in theft from the person and an 11 per cent fall in personal robbery.
In Westminster, neighbourhood crime fell by 36 per cent over the same period, according to the Met.
The force said it plans to expand its fleet of high-powered police e-bikes to improve its ability to pursue offenders using illegal electric bikes.