Street racer blitz sees 10 cars seized by police

Officers from the Central Motorway Police Group carried out the operation on February 7.

Codenamed 'Operation Hercules', the campaign saw traffic police patrolling major trunk roads popular with car cruisers on the look-out for speeders and illegally modified vehicles.

While 10 vehicles were impounded, Traffic Process Orders - which result in drivers being fined, having their licence endorsed, taken to court, or offered a drive improvement course - were handed out to 33 motorists.

In addition, four street race warnings were issued and three people summonsed to attend court for careless driving.

Traffic officer, Pc Adam Jobson, said: "The bad weather seemed to put off a lot of cruisers but there was still no shortage of Road Traffic Act offences identified by our officers.

"Cars were seized for a variety of reasons: some had dangerously dark tinted windows and others had modifications that potentially nullified their insurance.

"Four Section 59 notices were issued to drivers. If they are caught street racing or driving anti-socially again, thus breaching the conditions, we will seize the car. And that means the owner faces a sizeable bill for storage and release costs."

Traffic Process Orders were given for speeding, illegally modified number plates and excessive window tinting, while a Honda Civic was recovered after being abandoned following a brief police pursuit.

Officers spotted the Civic racing with another car along Heartlands Parkway in Birmingham at 10.20pm. It failed to stop for a police patrol car and was eventually involved in a collision at the junction Cotterills Lane and Belchers Lane in Alum Rock.

Police said three men are understood to have fled from the damaged Honda and an investigation is underway to identify the trio.

In December 2014, a ground-breaking High Court injunction banning car cruising in the Black Country was secured by Wolverhampton, Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall councils.

The injunction forbids people from participating in or promoting, organising or publicising a "car cruise" anywhere within the Black Country.

Car cruising – the act of drivers meeting on the public highway on either an organised or impromptu basis to race or show off in their cars – is noisy, dangerous and illegal.

The injunction followed regular gatherings at a number of "hotspots" around the Black Country, where up to 250 vehicles and spectators turn local roads into a race track. They include the Black Country Route and Birmingham New Road in Wolverhampton, Flood Street in Dudley, Bean Road Industrial Estate, Tipton, Hallens Drive, Wednesbury and Brickyard Road, Walsall, as well as public and retail car parks across the Black Country.