More motorbikes seized as part of crackdown on criminal behaviour on Teesside

Vehicles have been seized and arrests made as part of an operation to tackle crime on Teesside.

On Saturday 3 September, five males from the Stockton area were arrested on suspicion of offences including criminal damage, assault, public order and dangerous driving, as well as other traffic offences.

Two motorbikes were seized as part of the crackdown, which comes almost a month after Cleveland Police vowed to punish a group of off-road bikers who raced through the streets of Middlesbrough.

On August 7, the group were filmed performing stunts and driving on the wrong side of the road. One rider even used his rear wheel to spray a police van with mud.

• Video taken from social media.

Since then, a number of arrests and seizures have been made.

Within a week, ten arrests were made and the same amount of vehicles were seized in connection with the incident.

And on Thursday 1 September, suspected stolen motorbikes and a stash of weapons were seized in Norton.

Although the latest arrests have not been linked to the 7 August incident, they come as part of the on-going Operation Resolve which is a force-wide campaign that has been running during the summer period of higher demand.

In a statement, Cleveland Police said: "If you have information on illegal/nuisance use of vehicles including off-road bikes and quads or know where they’re being stored, please contact Cleveland Police on the 101 number or online through our website.

"If you don’t want to speak to police, you can pass information anonymously to independent charity Crimestoppers online at www.crimestoppers-uk.org or by phoning 0800 555 111."