POLICE in Taunton are warning motorists to get their vehicles legal or face being taken off the road.

The warning comes after a series of checks on vehicles in Taunton and Bridgwater uncovered an alarming number of cars, mopeds, scooters and motorcycles which were either illegal or not roadworthy.

During the last set of checks in Bridgwater, Operation Torque found 70 per cent of modified cars checked were found to have had either defective tyres, excessive noise emissions or mechanical defects of some kind.

Of the mopeds and scooters that were checked, 93 per cent were found to be illegal in some way with just one machine passing the test.

Offences included 16-year-olds riding de-restricted machines, effectively meaning that the machines were being ridden with no insurance and no driving licence. To make matters worse numerous vehicles possessed serious mechanical defects.

Motorcycles over 49cc were also checked, but again there was an 80 per cent failure rate due to serious vehicle defects.

The results have been replicated in a series of testing days throughout the last month which have been aimed at informing and educating drivers.

But now officers are getting tough on offenders with the threat of seizing illegal vehicles and taking them off the road until they are roadworthy.

Taunton Road Policing Unit head Inspector Barry Thomas said: "These are shocking figures and we believe operations like this are potentially saving the lives of motorists".

"In the case of mopeds and low powered motorcycles, these are vehicles being ridden by children and young people which have either been modified so they are then illegal or have worrying defect levels.

"It is also worrying that many of the mopeds and scooters had recently been bought from dealerships or passed MOT tests, but were still not legal on our roads."

Insp Thomas added: "We are doing everything possible to reduce the number of road traffic collisions involving young people in particular those on mopeds scooters and motorcycles.

"We hope that young people and their parents will begin to heed the message and realise that the chances of being involved in a serious road traffic collision on an illegal machine are far greater."

The operation to clamp down on illegal cars, mopeds, scooters and motorcycles as well as those riding machines for which they are not qualified will be carrying on throughout the coming weeks.