Seized e-bikes resold on auction sites as police cash in, BBC investigation finds

A significant number of electric bikes and e-motorcycles confiscated by UK police forces are ending up back in public hands through online auctions, an investigation by the BBC has revealed. Many of the vehicles are impounded because they are suspected of being ridden illegally or being used in crime, and while the majority are destroyed, some are listed for sale to the public — raising fresh questions about whether police are effectively recycling the tools of antisocial behaviour.

The scale of the seizures is substantial. Thousands of powered two-wheelers are confiscated across the country every year, but the number that police actually destroy is only part of the picture. According to figures obtained by the BBC through Freedom of Information requests, UK police forces sold 161 e-bikes and e-motorcycles last year, compared with 54 in 2024. The BBC stressed that the true total is likely to be higher, as not every force replied to its request.

The figures cover two quite different categories of machine. One is the electrically-assisted pedal cycle, which resembles an ordinary bicycle but has a motor that assists as the rider pedals. The other is the electric motorbike, a more powerful vehicle propelled entirely by its motor. Both fall under the same police statistics, even though they differ significantly in power, speed and price.

The issue has become a growing public concern because of the perceived link between these machines and both crime and antisocial behaviour. BBC reporting has documented clusters of incidents involving balaclava-clad young men riding modified e-bikes on footpaths and intimidating residents. The consequences have sometimes been fatal: 86-year-old grandmother Gloria Stephenson was struck by an illegal e-motorbike at a zebra crossing in Sunderland last year.

Police Scotland, which has responsibility for the whole of Scotland, is the largest single seller. It said that seized e-bikes are sent to an accredited recycler, who may then choose to auction them, with the proceeds returning to the force. Last year the force sold 93 e-bikes — more than any other police force in Britain — making it the most prominent example of the practice the BBC identified.

Other forces have defended selling on financial grounds. West Midlands Police, which sold 12 e-bikes last year, said the overwhelming majority of seized bikes are destroyed, with only a "small number" passed to an independent auction company so that the revenue can be reinvested in policing. West Yorkshire Police sold two e-bikes at auction and said the money raised is shared between the force and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, with some going to local good causes. The force stressed that every vehicle it sold was legally compliant.

E-scooters are also being auctioned, despite their own peculiar legal status in Britain. It is illegal to use a privately owned e-scooter on public property, although simply owning one is not an offence. Durham Constabulary sold three last year, while West Mercia Police sold one. Both forces said they have since reviewed their policies and will no longer sell either e-bikes or e-scooters.

Durham is among the forces that has changed course most dramatically. Having sold 29 e-bikes last year, it told the BBC that it had reviewed its policy and will now crush seized bikes without exception. West Mercia, which sold 24 e-bikes alongside its e-scooter, has made a similar commitment. Greater Manchester Police sold just one e-bike last year. Six forces in total confirmed to the BBC that some of the vehicles they had seized were sold.

The most high-profile critic of the practice is Clive Grunshaw, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Lancashire, who argues that selling the machines sends out a deeply mixed message. He points out that there is virtually nowhere outside a private garden where such vehicles can be legally ridden, which makes publicly auctioning them difficult to justify. He has urged police forces to stop selling e-bikes altogether.

Grunshaw says the machines have become the "transport of choice for drug gangs" in some areas, in part because they are so difficult to chase down and catch. He also suspects that some offenders whose vehicles are confiscated simply repurchase them at auction, effectively recovering the same bike they lost. His deeper concern is that criminals are buying compliant models from police and then fitting illegal modifications.

That concern is well founded in technical terms. Legal electric pedal bikes are restricted so that their motor cuts out at 15.5mph, a limit designed to keep them within the definition of a bicycle. Criminals, however, can buy "tuning kits" online — often advertised from eastern Europe — that remove or defeat the limiter, allowing some machines to reach speeds of around 40mph. Once that happens, a bike indistinguishable from a compliant one on the auction platform can become a far more dangerous vehicle on the street.

The auction trail is easy to trace. Police tend to sell seized vehicles through commercial auction platforms, with Raw2k — a company listed by several forces — among the most frequently named. The site regularly advertises bikes as "sold at the direction of police". The BBC found a listing for a Chinese-manufactured electric dirt bike said to have been auctioned from Falkirk earlier this month, with an opening bid of £250 — a fraction of the £3,295 retail price quoted for a new model of the same machine.

That gap between seizure value and resale price is at the heart of the controversy. Forces gain a modest financial return from auctions, and recyclers and auctioneers gain a commission, but the vehicles continue to circulate rather than being removed from circulation altogether. If a handful of bikes sold lawfully are later modified and misused, the cost of enforcement falls on the police and the public rather than on those who profited from the sale.

Some forces have clearly reconsidered their position, with Durham and West Mercia publicly moving away from resale. Others, including Police Scotland and West Midlands, continue to defend it as a legitimate way of returning money to policing budgets. Policing is under sustained financial pressure, and disposal of seized goods is one of the few areas where forces can generate small but recurring sums without raising taxes.

What remains unclear is whether the shift will be national or piecemeal. No central rule appears to prevent forces from auctioning seized powered two-wheelers, meaning the decision currently rests with individual forces and their leadership. Campaigners and commissioners like Grunshaw want a consistent approach, and questions are likely to be raised about tracking where auctioned bikes end up, how modifications are detected, and whether proceeds from sales should be permitted at all.

For now, the picture the BBC has assembled is one of a system with no single coherent policy: hundreds of bikes change hands each year through police-run auctions, some forces have pledged to stop, and others argue the money is too useful to forgo — even as legislators and campaigners warn that the vehicles are becoming a signature tool of organised crime.