E-scooters used in hundreds of assaults, thefts and instances of anti-social behaviour

‘Legalising e-scooters would have a dramatic and irreversible effect on our streets’

It is currently illegal to use e-scooters anywhere other than on private land in the UK (AFP via Getty Images)

Electric scooters have been used in offences which include assaults, anti-social behaviour and burglaries, police data has revealed.

Cases have included riders who were drunk and under the influence of drugs crashing into vehicles and pedestrians.

The incidents were revealed by police forces in response to Freedom of Information (FoI) requests. These have shown that there were over 200 incidents involving electric scooters in London in 2020, as well as multiple other incidents across the country.

Norfolk Constabulary listed details of 120 reports, PA reported. This involved several offences related to burglaries, assault and a person who “made off from police” using an e-scooter.

Meanwhile several traffic offences involving e-scooters were also recorded. This included an e-scooter pulling a trailer on a 60mph limit road and an “intoxicated male” who left the car park of a supermarket on an electric scooter.

Elsewhere Cleveland Police disclosed that between January and November 2020 they recorded a number of incidents involving e-scooters in connection with anti-social behaviour (23 cases), suspicious behaviour (six), transport (four) and robbery (two).

They also disclosed that two individuals had been “knocked down by someone on an e-scooter”.

Merseyside Police recorded over 100 e-scooter related incidents in 2020 while London’s Metropolitan Police recorded more than 200 the same year.

Derbyshire Constabulary recorded 27 and the total for Staffordshire Police was 23, The Daily Mail reported.

Currently, in the UK it is illegal to use a privately owned e-scooter on a road, pavement or in cycle lane. The only legal place to use an e-scooter is on private land.

The UK government has however begun a series of trials of rental schemes for electric scooters across the UK. These have included trials in Bristol, Liverpool, Birmingham, Salford, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, and London.

Chris Theobald, senior campaigns manager at charity Guide Dogs, said: “Legalising e-scooters would have a dramatic and irreversible effect on our streets.

“We have one chance to make sure that people with sight loss and other disabilities do not lose out as a result.”

He went on to express his concern that increasing popularity of e-scooters could mean that those with sight loss “will be forced to change their route or avoid independent travel altogether.”

David Davies, director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, said that police figures demonstrate e-scooters are “a bloody menace,” according to The Daily Mail.

He continued: “We have an interim situation where the Department for Transport is monitoring trials, meanwhile people are buying them hand over fist in shops and clearly using them, and we don’t feel retailers are necessarily being responsible.

“The restrictions are not tough enough on sale as there’s no regulation at all.”