A football club for young people in Aberdeen has been terrorised by bike-riding thugs driving dangerously across its pitches and frightening players.
The Northstar Community Football Club, based at the playing fields in Sheddocksley, has been plagued by teenagers on motocross bikes who tear up the pitches and intimidate its footballers, some as young as five years old.
Gary Milne, one of the coaches at the club, said: “We usually tell them where to go, but you just get a load of abuse off them and they drive off, but they always come back.
“Usually the drivers have a helmet on, and there’s no registration plates, so it’s hard to see who they are or catch them.
“We’ve got to get rid of the menace of these teenagers on these bikes, they’re not just an issue for our football bitch, they’re a problem all over the city.”
Mr Milne said that no children had been directly harmed by the bikers but that he and fellow coaches feared it was only a matter of time until someone was hurt.
He said : “We don’t want to be responsible for a child getting hurt.
“There haven’t been many close calls, but I really don’t want it to happen. It is possible when we’ve got so many kids playing at once.
“They’re just a nuisance. The boys get distracted by the bikes going about, and they get really nervous and they can’t play properly.
“I try and tell the boys to get on with it and ignore them, but they’re still there, making them nervous.”
A police spokeswoman explained that officers in the Sheddocksley area are well aware of the issue.
She said: “The anti-social use of motorcycles in the area around the Sheddocksley Playing fields has been reported to the police.
“Over the last six weeks a number of individuals have been charged and reported to the procurator fiscal in relation to road traffic offences in the area as part of Operation
Trinity, which aims to target the anti-social use of motorcycles.
“Officers have also spoken to local residents in the area and anyone who has concerns or information is advised to contact police on 101.”