Thursday December 11th 2025
Off road bike (photo by Police Scotland)
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
New laws to help police deal with off-road and electric bike crime are needed with current legislation described as ‘insufficient’ by one officer.
Inspector David Rourke told a meeting of Midlothian Police and Fire Rescue Board that the powers available to officers needed to be modernised to recognise the growing use of bikes in criminal and antisocial behaviour.
His comments came after Councillor Peter Smaill raised concerns about the lack of reporting in police reports of incidents involving off-road bikes and e-bikes,
Councillor Smaill said in one case a farmer’s field had been damaged by bikes and, despite CCTV allegedly being available from a nearby filling station, nothing appeared to have been followed up.
He said: “I want to talk about this whole problem of guys on bikes doing antisocial things. It has been raised by a member of Parliament and several community councils.
“A recent incident we had where a farmer’s field was completely churned up by bikes. Despite there being reports of CCTV now follow up was made with the farmer.”
Inspector Rourke said the issue was a ‘particularly difficult area to police’ both in Midlothian and across the UK but added that the number of reported incidents in the county remained low.
And he urged councillors who hear about problems to encourage people to get in touch with police.
He said: “We do not receive a lot of reports in Midlothian in respect of the off-road bikes or electric bikes despite being discussed quite often at community councils.
“I understand people become frustrated at a perceived lack of action but we need that information to be able to react.”
“I would encourage reporting incidents, there is a lack of reporting in Midlothian so when you are having these discussions with community councils and members of the public I would encourage you to encourage them to pick up the phone or fill in the online forms available just so we have the information.”
The inspector said his Midlothian team had had a lot of success in tackling issues leading to other forces in the UK contacting them to seek guidance on how they had dealt with it but said it came down to time invested by officers and support from the community.
And he said one of the issues facing officers was the outdated legislation.
He said: “I do think the legislation probably needs modernised in relation to this particular issue.
“I don’t think the current legislation we have is sufficient to deal with this problem, which is obviously a growing problem UK wide.”
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