Off-road bike policing op a summer success
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OFF-ROAD bike seizures in Widnes over the summer are among those being pinpointed as success stories by police.
Cheshire police’s Motorcycle Operation Team has helped the eight Local Policing
Units (LPUs) across the county to combat crimes and anti-social behaviour involving unregistered off-road motorcycles.
Deployed at the request of the LPUs, the team has made numerous arrests and seized off-road bikes in Widnes, Ellesmere Port, Frodsham and Goyt Valley.
Riding the force’s own off-road bikes, officers are able to pursue offenders in areas that are unreachable with conventional police vehicles.
They are able to seize unregistered off-road bikes and are also utilised by the force in searches for high risk missing people and reports of drug dealing in secluded areas.
Success stories over the summer pinpointed by police where the team played a key part include a 40-year-old man from Garston in Liverpool being arrested after a KTM 350SX bike that was stolen in a 2015 burglary in Gloucestershire was recovered from land next to Ditton Road.
A pit bike was seized from an unlicensed and uninsured 13-year-old boy, who was riding in an anti-social manor in Victoria Park.
A 17-year-old boy from Widnes was arrested on suspicion of burglary after a bike stolen in a burglary in the town in July 2019 was recovered following a police pursuit.
Superintendent Jo Marshall-Bell, head of Cheshire police’s Roads And Crime Unit, said: “The impressive list of success stories over the summer involving our Motorcycle Operation Team highlights the fact that it has established itself as a key part of our armoury in tackling crimes and anti-social behaviour across the county.
“I cannot praise the team enough for the work it does, not only in seizing and recovering vehicles and bringing offenders to justice but also in helping to find high-risk missing people and drug dealers in secluded areas.
“Through enforcement and education, the team also works to ensure that the trial system in the Peak District is used appropriately by members of the public.
“This work has coincided with a reduction in the number of reported incidents of off-road motorbikes being ridden in an anti-social manner in the area.”