A POLICE initiative aimed at curbing the number of nuisance off-road bikers has resulted in five people being issued with warnings and one stolen bike being seized.

A team of officers toured the Medway area on Sunday on the trail of nuisance users. Early on a 14-year-old boy was stopped on a mini-motocross bike. He was issued with a nuisance vehicle warning and his bike was seized.

He had been riding it in Chatham's Capstone Country Park, an area popular with dog walkers and horse riders.

Officers were then called to the Lordswood Leisure Centre where a girl riding a quad bike was stopped on the football pitches. She was also issued with a warning.

Shortly afterwards the team went onto Temple Marsh, Strood, where a man was seen to be using a mini-quad bike with a young child. A warning was issued to him and also to a 22-year-old man who was on a midi-scrambler bike.

The final warning of the day was issued to a teenage boy in playing fields off of Priestfields. He was riding a blue Yamaha Scrambler and his bike is due to be seized.

Officers then conducted a sweep of the Medway area and this resulted in a stolen bike being recovered from a garage block near Brabourne Avenue, Twydall, Gillingham.

PC Andy Ledger, who led the initiative, said: "We are serious about tackling nuisance and dangerous bikes in Medway and this day of action demonstrates our commitment to make the area safer.

"This effort was a result of local people pin-pointing to us where nuisance off-road bikers were riding and therefore allowed us to specifically target ‘hot spot’ areas which meant we were more effective.

"By working in partnership with the community we have enforced our message that we simply will not tolerate those who reduce people’s quality of life by riding these noisy and sometimes dangerous bikes in an anti-social way."

He stressed: "I would like to warn the bikers themselves that this is by no means a one-off initiative.

"We will continue to use every resource we have and work with our partners to tackle the anti-social menace posed by nuisance motorists, as together we can make the area an even safer place to work, live and visit."