Supercar owners in London are complaining that police are treating them like criminals, after authorities in Kensington and Chelsea have started cracking down on antisocial driving.
Metropolitan Police now have the power to force supercar drivers to leave the area and even seize the high-powered cars after a huge number of complaints about reckless and aggressive driving.
However, the drivers have hit back, criticising the crackdown and claiming that they’re being treated like criminals by police, simply for driving their cars in the area.
Speaking to the Evening Standard, Mercedes owner Mohammed Al Madid said: “This part of London is famous for luxury and we come here with our luxury cars in order to spend money, and yet we are treated like criminals.”
Another supercar owner, Abdullah Al Manah, said: “I have been stopped twice just this weekend purely because my car was too loud, not because I was driving dangerously.”
"We are treated like criminals"
The police crackdown comes following a three-month consultation which took into account reports and concerns from nearly 1,000 people living and working in the Kensington and Chelsea areas.
One local, taxi driver Kareem Kalou, told the paper: “There are people here with nothing to eat and these guys go around making so much noise and showing off, it’s disgusting. The police don’t do enough to stop them.”
As part of the tougher approach, police have also began issuing dispersal orders to car spotters there to take photos of the vehicles, claiming that it encourages antisocial behaviour from the drivers.
Inspector Chris Downs of the Kensington and Chelsea Community Policing Team said that there have been a large number of complaints in previous years relating to supercars being driven recklessly.
He added: “We are responding to these local concerns, and, since extremely rapid acceleration poses a particular danger to the public, we are determined to act before somebody is killed or seriously injured.”
