A record number of illegal e-bikes and e-scooters have been seized on the streets of London this year in a crackdown on phone snatchers, the Metropolitan Police has said.
The Met seized 29 e-bikes and seven e-scooters by Tottenham Court Road Station on Friday as part of Operation Lexand, which targeted illegal electric two-wheelers as part of a wider Met initiative to tackle phone theft.
It is the seventh such operation in the capital this year, with five more scheduled through the summer.
The project has helped the Met seize more than 2,500 illegal e-bikes and e-scooters in 2026, surpassing the 2,241 seized in the entirety of last year.
Detectives said the crackdown has helped bring down cases of phone theft in the West End, which is increasingly perpetrated by thieves riding illegal e-bikes, by nearly half.
Commander Neerav Patel, who was overseeing the operation, said: “We’ve heard loud and clear that Londoners are fed up of the criminal and antisocial use of e-bikes.
“We recognise that the use of e-bikes [can be] perfectly legitimate, but there are a vast number of people intent on using e-bikes for criminal and anti-social uses. We know that e-bikes are used in phone snatches, particularly in this part of London.”
To help test if a vehicle is illegal, new technology is being used to measure whether they could propel themselves faster than 15.5mph through electrically assisted pedals, batteries or throttles.
Officers were stationed at two stop sites close to Tottenham Court Road Station – a location with a disproportionately high amount of e-bike traffic and phone theft – with officers in plain clothing assisting to pull over users and test the bike’s speed.
If they were found to be too fast, and drivers were not properly licensed or insured, the bikes were taken away to be impounded – with owners given 14 days to provide the correct documentation before vehicles are stripped for recyclable parts and then crushed.
Each test takes around a minute.
Two arrests were made during the operation on Friday, including one for assaulting an emergency worker and another for public order offences, theft and recall to prison.
The Met is one of just two police forces in the country, alongside Nottinghamshire, to deploy the “rolling roads” technology.
They have two Dynostar and two more portable Wenger test kits that act as treadmills to quickly determine whether a vehicle is legally compliant.
Officers can pull over bikes they suspect to be non-compliant, with common red flags being speed, the use of throttles that enable users to travel at speed without pedalling and big, potentially strapped-on batteries.
Commander Patel added: “We’ll stop riders that we have a reasonable suspicion over the bike, which will be put into the device.
“This is no different to somebody jumping on a motorcycle without license, without any safety gear, without any insurance as far as the law’s concerned.”
The Met said the crackdown was having success both statistically and with public response.
Commander Patel said: “What we are doing is clearly working. Phone theft in the West End, increasingly perpetrated by thieves riding illegal e-bikes, has nearly halved. We’ll continue to do everything we can to make London an even safer city for everyone to enjoy.”
Superintendent Luke Baldock, who was Mr Patel’s second-in-command on the operation, added: “Usually we get a lot of grief when we’re out like this but it’s been night and day.
“Just speaking to the members of the public passing by, everyone is saying thank goodness you’re doing something about this. We took a roadshow to all of the 32 boroughs and one of the main issues the public always complained about was speed bikes.
“They go far too fast, so they’re dangerous. It makes people unsafe because they enable other types of crime like robbery.
“We’re using the ‘rolling road’ solution. That means we’re detecting more illegal e-bikes [and it’s] allowing us to seize many more.”
Some of the bikes seized, made by brands such as Engwe, Fiido, Hitway and Super73, recorded speeds in excess of 27 miles per hour.
By confiscating more of them, the Met said it is reducing local crime, with neighbourhood offences down by 14% in the 12 months to June compared with the previous year in London – the equivalent of 35,000 fewer reported offences.
This includes 23,311 fewer thefts from person (down 23%) and 2,943 fewer personal robberies (11% lower).
