Met police break their own record for seizing illegal e-bikes

This is a London policing story and doesn't touch on home energy upgrades or rebates, but here's what happened in plain terms.

London's Metropolitan Police have seized more than 2,500 illegal e-bikes and e-scooters in just the first half of 2026, already beating the 2,241 taken during all of 2025. In the UK, privately owned e-scooters are illegal on public roads, and e-bikes are only legal if their motor assistance cuts out at 15.5 mph and they meet other technical rules. Police are targeting bikes illegally modified to go faster or carry oversized batteries and throttles that can move the bike without pedaling.

To catch these, officers increasingly use portable roadside devices called dynamometers, or "rolling roads," which measure a bike's power and speed on the spot. The Met is one of only two UK police forces currently using this equipment. A recent single-day operation near Tottenham Court Road Station netted 29 e-bikes and seven e-scooters; it was the seventh such operation this year, with five more planned over the summer.

Police link the crackdown to falling crime, pointing to a 14% drop in neighborhood offenses across London over the past year, a 23% decline in theft from the person, and an 11% drop in robberies. Officials say most e-bike riders use their vehicles legitimately, and the enforcement is aimed specifically at illegally modified bikes tied to crimes like phone snatching.