E-scooters and e-bikes driven by brazen phone snatchers are to be destroyed by police within hours of being seized amid a crackdown on London's mobile theft epidemic.
Previously officers had to warn offenders before taking away and crushing a bike, scooter or any other vehicle driven in an anti-social manner or if it was used to facilitate a theft.
But now, new powers will mean police won't have to wait two weeks before throwing them away and will be able to do so in a two-day time frame.
Ministers argued that the current two-week deadline made it less challenging for offenders to re-obtain their vehicles, meaning little discouragement against repeat offending.
And while e-bikes and scooters have increasingly annoyed pedestrians, they too are being more frequently used to snatch mobile phones out of the hands of unassuming walkers.
