Bike yobs ‘to be sprayed’

SCRAMBLER bike yobs in Runcorn could be sprayed with DNA in the near future to make them easy to catch in a police bid to combat off-road motorbike nuisance.

PC Phil Brown has said officers and PCSOs are undergoing training to use the Selecta DNA devices.

He said the equipment’s introduction in Runcorn follows a spike in off-road bike activity in Runcorn in the past month.

It also comes hot on the heels of an incident in which a PCSO fell from her bicycle after a thug on a scrambler drove straight at her on Stockham Lane in Brookvale on Thursday, September 14.

The PCSO suffered minor injuries in the incident.

A Selecta DNA spray scheme was launched in Widnes in June this year in a joint scheme funded by the police, Halton Borough Council and Halton Housing Trust.

Its use is intended to mark the bikes and riders so they can be traced and identified to a unique code.

Their vehicles can then be seized and crushed.

The DNA spray dye is invisible to the naked eye but can be seen with ultraviolet light and is simi- lar to the substance used in the Operation Shield propertymarking counter-burglary initiative.

PC Brown said two off-road vehicles had been seized in Runcorn in September.

Residents can report offences to Cheshire police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, quoting ‘Operation Scrambler’.

Alternatively, send an email to operation.scrambler@cheshire.pnn.police.uk

Anyone with any information about the incident involving the PCSO should call 101 quoting incident 356 of September 14.