The government is directly targeting "illegal car meets" and anti-social behaviour (ASB) by giving police the power to destroy seized vehicles in half the time it currently takes.
What’s Changing?
Currently, if your car is seized by the police under ASB laws — such as a Section 59 for excessive engine revving, playing loud music late at night, or driving anti-socially — the police must hold the vehicle for 14 days before they are legally allowed to dispose of or crush it.
Under the new laws proposed by Policing Minister Sarah Jones, that mandatory waiting period is being slashed to just 7 days.
The Home Office has explicitly cited late-night car meets, off-road bikes tearing through local parks, and dangerous e-scooter use as the driving forces behind this strict new crackdown. The goal is to give offenders less time to scrape together the release fees and reclaim their cars to offend again.
The Bottom Line for us Enthusiasts
We all know that a few bad apples doing burnouts at 1 AM in a retail park can give the entire modified car community a bad name. This new law means that if you get caught up in a meet that the police shut down for being "anti-social," your margin for error is practically non-existent.
Both the AA and the ASB awareness charity Resolve have publicly backed the move, stating it will bring faster relief to local residents dealing with nuisance vehicles.