Authorities in one central London borough are finally wresting control of the streets back from unruly drivers.
The Metropolitan Police just announced that it has seized over 60 “supercars” in the city of Westminster over the last couple of weeks, according to Road & Track. The reason? Anti-social driving.
Residents have been complaining to the Westminster City Council for quite some time about cars being driven poorly or at high speeds. As a result, the council teamed up with the Met on an operation meant to clamp down on anti-social driving—a catch-all phrase that includes everything from street racing to performing stunts to misusing vehicles off-road—during the time of the year when the problem is traditionally at its worst.
The operation was launched on Friday, August 2, and saw £6 million ($7.7 million) worth of vehicles seized over that first weekend. Police grabbed over 60 cars from offending drivers, including some made by Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Rolls-Royce, according to a council press release. Additionally, five arrests were made, for charges that included insurance fraud, driving while using a mobile phone, driving without a seat belt, and driving without due care.
“People who think it is ok to use our roads as their own private racetrack late at night are not welcome in Westminster,” Westminster councilor Paul Dimoldenberg said in a statement. “The noise and dangerous driving from these boy racers is often worse during the summer, so I welcome these results from the enforcement work. This underlines the council’s zero-tolerance approach to anti-social driving.
The release only includes vehicle seizure and arrest statistics from the first weekend of the month, but makes clear that “Vehicle Recovery and Examination Services” are a vital part of the Met’s plan to make the streets of London safer.
The Met, which oversees law enforcement in Greater London, isn’t the only U.K. police force that’s currently trying to put an end to anti-social driving. Last summer, Greater Manchester Police in norther England launched a similar operation. During one weekend in May 2023,officers seized two Lamborghinis that were being driven dangerously around the streets of Bolton into the early hours of the morning.
