Police on Merseyside have admitted they were surprised when they caught up with an erratically driven scrambler bike on a public road to find the rider was a seven-year-old boy.
The budding Steve McQueen, who was by himself, explained to officers that he had been given the bike as a Christmas present.
The boy was stopped after police responded to reports from concerned members of the public on New Year’s Eve about the way a scrambler bike was being ridden in Huyton. They arrived and saw for themselves it was being ridden “erratically”.
It is illegal for scramblers to be ridden on a road, let alone to allow a young child be in charge of one, police said.
Insp Brian Loughran of Knowsley’s targeted policing team said: “It is really worrying that a seven-year-old was riding this vehicle on the roads. It is illegal for a scrambler to be driven on the road, but to let a child take to the roads presents a danger to their safety and the safety of others.
“We’ve seized the scrambler bike from today’s incident in line with Operation Brookdale protocols and we will continue to seize scrambler bikes that are being ridden dangerously or illegally.
“We don’t want to be taking kids’ Christmas presents off them, but we’d rather be taking their bikes off the roads than taking them to hospital. Or worse.”
Police also said parents who allowed their children to ride scrambler or quad bikes could be prosecuted.
Illegally ridden and noisy scrambler and quad bikes are part of a wider problem of persistent antisocial behaviour for many neighbourhoods across the UK.
A year ago Yvette Cooper, then the shadow home secretary, called them a “nightmare for communities” and promised new powers for police if elected.
Stopping someone so young on the nation’s roads is unusual but not unprecedented. “Staggered” North Yorkshire police stopped an 11-year-old schoolboy driving a black BMW X5 on the M1 last March. He was towing a suspected stolen caravan.
