1800 boy-racer offence notices issued since January

A spate of serious boy racer incidents showed it was important to get tough with the problem, Police Minister Judith Collins told Parliament yesterday.

She said that since January police had issued more than 1800 offence notices for illegal street racing.

"Police regularly report on the disorder caused by illegal street racers," she said.

"In the last week alone I received extremely concerning reports."

Ms Collins said an innocent motorcyclist died as a result of two vehicles being allegedly involved in illegal street racing.

Another incident involved two teenagers smashing into a 55-year-old woman's car while they were allegedly doing the same thing.

"I have received a report from police that shows 31 boy racers are facing charges, many serious, after an illegal street racing incident in Rotorua involving 230 cars and 900 people," she said.

"It is alleged these people caused chaos, throwing bottles and abusing police officers when they arrived at the venue.

"This type of incident is far too common and demonstrates yet again the need to toughen up existing law which is widely acknowledged as being too soft."

Ms Collins has a bill in Parliament which will give courts the power to order cars owned by repeat offenders crushed.

Labour has suggested enforcing permanent confiscation of a third-party-owned vehicle after two offences within four years.

- NZPA