Blackpool Police say they have arrested a 23-year-old e-bike rider following the use of a stinger. They add that having gathered evidence, including through deployment of the Police helicopter,  they now are looking to make further arrests.

A Police Spokesperson said, ‘We know that a lot of you will have been frustrated by e-bikes being ridden anti-socially in the centre of Blackpool. We have witnessed young men on these bikes going through red lights, riding on the wrong side of the road and being generally abusive.  To counteract this, we deployed a number of officers in the area and also had the police helicopter overhead gathering vital intelligence.

As a result of deploying a stinger, we managed to arrest a 23-year-old man from Blackpool on suspicion of dangerous driver. He remains in custody at this time. We will continue to proactively target individuals who put the lives of others at risk by behaving in such a dangerous and reckless way. We will review the evidence gathered and look to make further arrests.’

A local resident said, ‘To be completely honest as a local person, these individuals riding e bikes and quad bikes who are fully masked up are an absolute nightmare, who are lawless! And they are terrorising our community on a day-to-day basis and allowed to do this without any consequences. I witnessed yesterday 2 e-bikes and a quad bike driving at a really fast speeds on the tram tracks between North and Central Pier, the riders where again masked up, this was at 530pm when children were running freely around the prom enjoying the Easter weekend. An accident waiting to happen and with the technology we have are being watched on CCTV and it is being accepted as behaviour which is allowed and won’t be challenged. Police should be allowed to intervene and stop this dangerous behaviour.’

featured photographs are for illustrative purposes only and do not picture the arrest