'Behave or your house is at risk' - Nuisance South Tyneside e-bike owners fired stark warning

Concerns have been raised over nuisance electric bike riders in parts of South Tyneside - with police warning council house residents could face tenancy sanctions if they are found to be responsible.

Worries were voiced by attendees at the latest meeting of East Shields and Whitburn Community Area Forum (CAF) about the “dangerous” behaviour of e-bike riders which has been seen in the region.

Northumbria Police chiefs urged people to report any information or intelligence they have around nuisance riders, stressing they will take action where possible.

They added with the "time and resources" they have they will "target the ones that use them in criminality" - with various legislative options available including issues notices and additional sanctions for council house tenants.

Neighbourhood Inspector Dave Heron, who covers the area, speaking at the meeting, said: "We want to know where these bikes are and who is buying them.

"There is no better way of combating them than finding them in the house.

"If they’re kept in a council property, there’s various sanctions we can do around that, around breach of tenancy, because they’ll not be charging them in the garden, they’ll be charging them in the house.

"It’s against their tenancy and we’ve got ways and means to put sanctions on that individual."

He added the police have "bespoke tactics" which they will use to find those responsible and they can use drones when they are targeting hot spot locations or as part of policing operations.

Inspector Heron reiterated information and intelligence is key to help tackle the nuisance behaviour - adding parents also have a role to play by informing young people of the dangers and rules around the vehicles.

He said: "We all have that responsibility to prevent anti-social behaviour by impacting good values and good morals, that goes for parents as well on our youths.

"Where they’re storing them, where they’re keeping them, who are the families that are buying them for their kids, who are the criminals that are using them to deal drugs, that all comes through information and intelligence.

"Information and intelligence is not ignored, it's assessed and it will continue to be assessed, it will always be recorded and if we can corroborate we’ll act on it.

People can report incidents of nuisance e-bike riders and any intelligence to police at https://www.northumbria.police.uk/ as well as by calling 101.

For details on how to report antisocial behaviour to the council, visit https://www.southtyneside.gov.uk/article/1957/Report-anti-social-behaviour.