By Ben Perrin
A teenager has been arrested and later charged after police seized off-road and e-bikes in Dudley . During a four-hour operation, police spotted a boy riding an off-road bike carelessly and without wearing protective equipment in the Woodsetton area. The 17-year-old fled when officers stopped him but soon caught up. He was later charged with possession of an offensive weapon, possession of class B drugs, and traffic offences. READ MORE: Innocent Birmingham men on Benidorm stag do cleared of rape after 20-month jail hell READ MORE: Pedestrian trying to cross road ‘at pace’ killed in horrific cement mixer truck crash – inquest READ MORE: ‘I find West Midlands missing people from cold cases all over the world – families need closure’ Police also stopped an electric motorbike being ridden at speed by a man along Burton Road. Officers issued the 20-year-old with a formal warning for riding in an anti-social manner. A 24-year-old man also had his racing pit bike taken off him for riding without insurance. The operation centered around Sedgley, Woodsetton, Gornal, Coseley and surrounding areas which saw officers from a range of teams involved. This included neighbourhood, force contact and force traffic as well as PCSOs and Specials all patrolling the northern neighbourhoods on Thursday, July 3. There was also back-up from the off-road biking team, and dedicated Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) officer alongside Dudley Council鈥檚 ASB and CCTV officers. In addition to the seizures, police issued a community resolution notice to a passenger on another motorbike for possessing cannabis. It also conducted two stop and searches, and officers took time to offer reassurance to local residents about the work we鈥檙e doing to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour across the borough. The operation took place during ASB Awareness Week which highlights issues like aggressive biking, street drinking, littering, drug taking and other nuisance behaviour that bothers you, and how we鈥檙e dealing with these problems. Sgt Ross Treacy from Dudley North鈥檚 Local Action Team, said: 鈥淲hen listening to concerns about ASB, people riding off-road bikes, e-bikes and other vehicles aggressively on streets and in parkland areas often tops the list of bugbears. It鈥檚 not just about the dangers they pose to pedestrians. These vehicles are often linked to criminal activity. 鈥淲e鈥檙e tackling this head on with operations like this and, while we鈥檒l be running more of these, we also need members of the public to feed us information. I鈥檇 like to make a plea for residents to get in touch if they think can help us. We鈥檙e all ears.鈥 Sgt Alex Hipkiss from Force Contact added: 鈥淲e know our presence acts as a deterrent to those who cause alarm riding vehicles recklessly on and off our roads and we hope people will see that we are taking their concerns seriously. We won鈥檛 let up in our efforts to tackle this and other forms of anti-social behaviour in our communities.鈥 If you see this kind of anti-social and dangerous riding, tell police about it via 101. You can also sign for up for the free email messaging service Home Page – WMnow to receive updates on how police are dealing with crime in your area and to let them know about the issues that matter to you.