AN EXASPERATED resident who forced a 12-year-old boy off a motorbike after catching him riding on a public footpath has been left fuming after a police officer told him he would face a common assault charge if he did it again.

David Harris, of Harlech Close, Winklebury, Basingstoke, said he did what he did because he is fed up with a small number of youngsters who have been using footpaths adjacent to playing fields as race tracks.

He claims the young bike riders have been whizzing along the paths, which are behind his home, at high speed, and fears it will end with a death or a serious injury.

Mr Harris said: "It amazed me. I stopped the 12-year-old, who was riding a Suzuki 125 up and down the path. He refused to get off his bike, so I lifted his leg to remove him.

"The police told me if I did it again I would face a common assault charge. This has absolutely incensed myself and other residents.

"It's a constant and dangerous problem. It will only take one child to run out as a bike is passing and it will kill them.

"We don't know what to do next, apart from taking the situation into our own hands, without the law on our side. The situation has been going on for three years."

Mr Harris believes Basingstoke police could be doing more to combat the problem.

However, Pc Adrian Pinnock, the beat officer for the Winkle-bury area, said: "I can assure Mr Harris that a lot of work is being done in the area. We have stepped up our patrols of the footpath."

Pc Pinnock - who was not the officer who warned Mr Harris about his future behaviour - added: "This is a never-ending problem that affects the whole of Basingstoke. Hundreds of youngsters have access to bikes, either legally or illegally, and there is no simple solution.

"Nine tenths of the problem is identification. They are unlikely to stop for the police, they may have their helmets on or hoods up and are difficult to identify.

"A lot of off-road bikes have no registration. Once we know who they are, there is no excuse for the police not to act."