Now END the great e-scooter crimewave
● They have been used for 20,000 offences in three years, a 60% rise ● Unlicensed riders behind thefts, drug deals and sex attacks ● Campaigners call for registration and urge Ministers...
MINISTERS have been urged to launch a crackdown on the menace of electric scooters after police data revealed the shocking scale of thuggery linked to the machines.
More than 20,000 crimes involving e-scooters have been recorded by forces over the past three years, with a rise of 60 per cent over the same period. The crimes include drug-trafficking, sexual offences and hundreds of robberies.
Scores of e-scooter riders were also found to be carrying weapons and dozens of pedestrians have been run down, according to the data – given in response to Freedom of Information requests.
Despite privately owned e-scooters being banned on public roads and pavements, they can readily be bought online or in shops and do not need to be registered. The buyers can then modify them to go at speeds of up to 70mph.
Tory MP Greg Smith, who sits on the Commons Transport Committee, said: ‘E-scooters, e-bikes and other forms of micro-mobility have been increasingly used in crime and there needs to be a serias ous approach to cracking down on people’s ability to use them for criminal purposes.
‘A registration scheme would be sensible because that’s ultimately how you’re going to hold people accountable – and Ministers need to get that done as quickly as is humanly possible.’
However, Ministers say they will wait until Government-backed trials
‘There needs to be a serious crackdown’
on rental e-scooters have concluded before tightening the law. But these trials that have already been extended three times and are now not scheduled to finish until May 2026.
Experts say that failure to introduce a requirement for private escooters to be registered means thugs are being given an ‘open invitation to commit any form of offence and avoid detection’.
Freedom of Information requests were sent to 43 police forces covering England and Wales, 21 of which responded – meaning the true number of incidents will be much higher than the 20,219 figure given by the forces who did respond.
Avon and Somerset recorded the highest number over the last three years at 1,900. This was followed by Lincolnshire (1,774) and Northumbria (1,600).
But Bedfordshire Police recorded one of the most severe rap sheets. E-scooters in the county were linked to 23 trafficking of drugs offences, 44 robberies and two possession of firearms offences, well as to reports of stalking, sexual assault and even of attempted murder. Road-offences lawyer Nick Freeman said: ‘They can travel very quietly, and there’s no registration plates so the police have very little chance of apprehending anyone.
‘E-scooters are subject to the Road Traffic Act 1988 but they don’t need registration and that’s the vital piece of the jigsaw that is missing. It makes current legislation impotent.
‘Licensing them with the DVLA and registering them is the start so that they’re treated like mopeds. Otherwise it’s just an open invitation to commit any form of offence and avoid detection.’ Retailers reported a boom in sales of e-scooters during the Covid lockdowns. They typically cost from £200 to £300, but high-end models can be more than £1,000.
Their top speeds are supposedly capped at 15.5mph but they can easily be modified.
The vast majority of alleged crimes are thought to have involved privately owned e-scooters rather than the Government-backed devices on trial. Only the latter are legal to ride on roads and those who rent them must have a valid provisional or full UK driving licence.
A Government spokesman said: ‘We are already making our communities safer through our Criminal Justice Bill, with Crime Survey for England and Wales showing neighbourhood crimes including as burglary, robbery and theft are down 50 per cent since 2010.
Private e-scooters of any kind remain illegal, and the e-scooter trials taking place in a small number of areas have been extended to May 2026 to allow us to gather further evidence to ensure that any future legislation balances safety, user accountability and market growth.’
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