Vehicles seized in anti-social behaviour crackdown

Three vehicles have been seized in a crackdown on modified cars and anti-social behaviour in Boston.

Lincolnshire Police said Operation Exhaust was prompted by "numerous complaints" over noisy exhausts and other driving incidents involving "boy racers" in the town.

One car was caught with an exhaust so loud it was the equivalent of being at a rock concert, according to the force, which has issued 24 tickets for traffic and vehicle offences.

Sgt William Robson said: "People feel intimidated by this behaviour. It's an aggressive act and, ultimately, we want it to stop."

Police said their operation on Friday had seen drivers caught for a number of offences including defective tyres, illegal window tints, not wearing seatbelts, modified registration plates and not being in proper control of a vehicle.

Three vehicles were seized for document offences.

Sgt Robson said: "We will tackle anti-social behaviour in all forms, whether that's vehicles, people causing problems in parks or littering. This action was part of that and was very successful.

"We try to engage with offenders but this was about upping the enforcement and drawing a line under it. We've had too many complaints to ignore it."

Police said the legal limit for a vehicle's exhaust was 72 decibels for cars made since 2016. However, one car was caught with an exhaust recording 114.5 decibels – equivalent to being at a rock concert.

PC Phil McAllister, from the roads policing unit, said: "This wasn't just about noise, it was about a range of offences which cause distress to the public on a daily basis.

"We saw people wheel-spinning and doing doughnuts. That is unacceptable and can put people's lives in danger."

The operation was criticised by some who claimed police should be tacking "more important" things.

One user described it as a "waste of taxpayer money" and said Lincolnshire Police should "do real police work".

Sgt Robson defended the operation and told the BBC he found the negative comments disappointing.

"While we had this operation going on we had many more officers out working on other crimes people are worried about," he said.

"This was about specialist officers targeting a specific issue."

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