Calls for cops to crush e-bikes as number of seizures rockets
Soaring numbers of illegal e-scooters and e-bikesare being seized by police - leading to calls for officers to get strengthened powers to quickly crush them.
By MICHAEL BLACKLEY FOR THE SCOTTISH DAILY MAIL
Published: 21:13 GMT, 2 January 2026 | Updated: 21:13 GMT, 2 January 2026
Soaring numbers of illegal e-scooters and e-bikes are being seized by police – leading to calls for officers to get strengthened powers to quickly crush them.
In the first nine months of last year, 452 e-bikes and 115 e-scooters were seized by police, up from 272 e-bikes and 82 e-scooter seizures in the whole of 2024.
It follows concerns about the scourge of the vehicles, which are commonly used in crime and antisocial behaviour, leading to communities being blighted by off-road biking in public parks and intimidating street racing.
Now Scottish Labour is demanding strengthened powers for police to seize unlicensed vehicles and quickly crush them.
Reforms were introduced in England last year, with perpetrators of antisocial driving facing having their e-scooters or off-road bikes seized and destroyed after 48 hours rather than the previous 14-day delay which made it easier to reclaim them.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: ‘Communities across Scotland are being plagued by the scourge of illegal e-bikes.
‘Scottish Labour will crackdown on e-bikes as a policy priority. We will support the police to seize and destroy unlicensed illegal e-bikes and e-scooters.’
The Police Scotland figures show seizures of e-bikes soared from 29 in 2022 to 69 in 2023, 272 in 2024 and 452 last year up to September 25. There were 27 e-scooter seizures in 2022, rising to 30 in 2023, 82 in 2024 and 115 up to last September. Most seizures related to them being uninsured and/or unlicensed.
452 e-bikes and 115 e-scooters were seized by police in the first nine months of last year
Police said that whenever 'non-compliant' e-bikes are identified, they are seized
The risks of illegally driving electric vehicles were laid bare last July, when 18-year-old Kendal John Donaldson died in Ayrshire after colliding with an ambulance while riding an e-scooter around 2am.
Currently Police Scotland can only seize them for being in breach of the Road Traffic Act 1988, the driver not having a driving licence or insurance, or for breaching the Antisocial Behaviour (Scotland) Act.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘We are aware of concerns regarding the issue of non-compliant e-bikes and illegal e-scooters and whenever these vehicles are identified they are seized.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Ministers and officials regularly meet Police Scotland and others to consider how best to deal with the illegal use of e-bikes and e-scooters.
‘We also continue to engage with the United Kingdom Government... to consider what else can be done.’
Ahead of the final term at Holyrood before the election, Mr Sarwar added: ‘In just four months we have a chance to call time on the SNP’s soft-touch approach to justice, restore community policing and make our streets safer.’