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STATEMENT Ref 297/2002 Date 30 December 2002 ______________________________________________________________________
Joyriders and nuisance drivers who blight communities by using local streets, parks, wasteland and public footpaths as race tracks will have their vehicles seized on the spot under a new police power coming into force on New Years Day.
The measure, implemented under the Police Reform Act 2002, allows police and community support officers to seize cars and motorbikes driven carelessly, inconsiderately or ''off-road'' in a manner that causes alarm, annoyance or distress. The owner of the vehicle will have to pay up to £357 to retrieve it.
Car and motorbike owners will not be liable to pay a fee to recover their vehicles if they are not the driver, have not consented to the vehicle''s use and could not have prevented the vehicle being driven in an anti-social manner.
Home Office Minister, John Denham, said:
"Joyriding and the anti-social use of cars and motorbikes can blight local communities, causing misery and distress to people going about their daily lives.
"We are determined to deal with this growing problem and are giving police and community support officers radical new powers to seize vehicles being driven recklessly on roads, public footpaths, parks and housing estates. This will put an immediate stop to dangerous and intimidating behaviour."
The new power is in addition to measures introduced under the Police Reform Act last month give community support officers and accredited community safety officers powers remove broken down, illegally parked or abandoned vehicles. These create fear of crime in communities as well as helping to create more crime, including arson and the sale of stripped parts.
Notes to Editors:
1. The Police Reform Act specifically allows the police and community support officers to seize a vehicle:
* on a road or other public space, where it is being driven without due care and attention or without reasonable consideration for others in contravention of section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1998 and in addition is being driven in such a way that it is causing or is likely to cause alarm, distress, or annoyance to members of the public. So this will for example catch those using housing estate roads as illegal race-tracks; and
* off-road, where it is being driven without lawful authority on common land, moorland or any other land that does not form part of the road or on a footpath or bridleway in contravention of section 34 of the 1988 Act and in addition is being driven in a such a way that it is causing or likely to cause alarm, distress or annoyance to members of the public. It applies to both motor vehicles and off-road vehicles.
2. Under section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, it is an offence to drive a vehicle carelessly or inconsiderately. Section 34 of the Act also makes it an offence to drive a vehicle without authority on land which is not a road. The new powers strengthen these provisions by enabling the immediate seizure of vehicles concerned to stop anti-social behaviour.
3. Police and community support officers must, where practicable, give a warning before before seizing the vehicle.
4. Once a vehicle has been seized, the police should serve a notice on the vehicle''s owner as soon as they are able to. This requires the owner to pay a charge for removal and storage if they want the vehicle back (£105 to recover the vehicle and £12 per day for storage of the vehicle).
5. Regulations have been made under the Police Reform Act covering the duty of the police regarding the retention and safe-keeping of a seized vehicle, the giving of notice of seizure requiring the vehicle to be claimed within 21 days, the charges that can be levied before a vehicle is released (£105 for vehicle''s removal and £12 per day for retention), steps required to find the owner if the vehicle is not claimed, arrangements for disposal of a vehicle and payment of the net proceeds of disposal to the owner.
6. The regulations provide specifically that an owner shall not have to meet such fees where he can demonstrate that: when the vehicle was seized he was not the person using it, he had not consented to its use in that way and he could not, by taking reasonable steps, have prevented its use in that way.
7. Home Office guidance will be issued to police forces to ensure that appropriate systems are in place based on the regulations.
8. The Police Reform Act received Royal Assent in July and is available at http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk. Details of the wider police reform programme are available at http://www.policereform.co.uk
9. Details of 27 forces receiving funding to recruit community support officers and a breakdown of the funding were announced by the Home Secretary on 23 September 2002 (Home Office press notice 258/2002).
10. Community support officers will be police authorities employees who provide a highly visible policing presence on streets and neighbourhoods. The Police Reform Act allows chief officers to give them limited powers to deal with anti-social behaviour, including a power of detention for 30 minutes (being piloted in six areas: Metropolitan police, West Yorkshire, Lancashire, Devon and Cornwall, Northamptonshire, Gwent). (Home Office press notice 329/2002).
11. A white paper on tackling anti-social behaviour will be published in the New Year. The Government will also publish a strategy to combat anti-social behaviour and a green paper on dealing with problems associated with children at risk.
Issued on behalf of the Home Office by GNN East Midlands 1
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BUILDING A SAFE, JUST AND TOLERANT SOCIETY
