Illegal bikes seized and alleged shoplifters arrested on busy day of police activity

Officers from West Midlands Police seized two off-road bikes and an uninsured road-worthy motorbike, as well as making two arrests during a special police operation.

Brownhills and Blakenall neighbourhood police teams linked up with the National Police Air Service (NPAS), WMP traffic and WMP’s off-road bikes teams on Sunday to take part in Op Adhesion.

They were joined by partner organisations Walsall Council, The Canal and Rivers Trust and volunteers from the charity Sustrans to carry out a day of enforcement action.

The off-road bikes team reacted quickly to information from shop staff to arrest two alleged shoplifters who had fled from a shop on Wolverhampton Road West in Willenhall.

Two men were taken into custody on suspicion of shoplifting, with one of the men also wanted on recall to prison.

During the day, a fixed wing plane from NPAS was deployed to spot illegal bikers from the air and pinpoint their location, before specialist off-road motorbikes were deployed to enter and patrol public parks, paths, and wasteland and track down offenders.

Two of the seized bikes will be used for community projects to encourage skills in bike maintenance in a legal way and the road bike owner made to prove it is road-legal before it is returned.

Sergeant Ben Killeen, neighbourhood policing supervisor for Brownhills, who was leading the operation, said: “We listened to your concerns and have taken action.

"We realise these bikes are often driven dangerously on roads and green spaces causing significant upset to our local communities.

“Some are stolen and being used to commit crime such as theft, burglary and other related offences.

"This was another successful operation where we seized three bikes which were being ridden illegally.

“It was another excellent team effort involving our Brownhills and Blakenall neighbourhood teams, officers from both our traffic and off-road teams and the fixed wing plane from the National Police Air Service.

"As well as this we received help from our partners at Walsall Council, The Canal and Rivers Trust and volunteers from charity Sustrans.

“We have carried out a number of these off-road bike operations over the last year after listening to the concerns of local people.

"We understand the nuisance they cause to people’s lives and that is why we are doing all we can to tackle the problem.

“Illegal off-road biking is having a serious impact on our local communities which is totally unacceptable.

“We continue to run these operations and will be targeting people who use these vehicles in an anti-social and dangerous way.

"We are warning offenders who continue to drive these machines illegally and putting the public at risk that they will be caught and their vehicles will be taken by the police and either destroyed or diverted into community projects.”