Youth workers are trying to combat a mini-motorbikes craze causing havoc across Sussex.

Police have confiscated six bikes and issued 32 warnings in the Adur district in the past two months alone.

Three more were seized and 24 warnings given in Worthing.

Six warnings were issued in Littlehampton while four bikes were seized in Bognor.

Brighton and Hove has also become a venue for the bikers who speed through housing estates.

Many of the bikes, which can travel up to 30mph, are ridden by children and young people illegally.

Bikes ridden on a public road must be registered with the DVLA, have tax and a number plate, lights and brakes.

The rider must also hold a valid driving licence, be insured and wear a helmet.

Police have the power to confiscate a bike if the riders prove a nuisance and they will have to pay £129 to have it recovered and £15 each day that it is in a compound.

Youth workers and police in Whitehawk, Brighton, are trying to direct illegal riders off the estate's roads and pavements by organising bike days at a race track in Kent.

Darren Snow, youth worker at the Crew Club, Whitehawk, Brighton, said: "We've been talking about the problems of motorbikes for 30 or 40 years. The new craze is the small type of bikes which are being ridden by young people from the age of ten to 17.

"It's another problem we would rather not have."

Mr Snow has identified a possible venue where the bikes can be ridden legally.

He is investigating taking young people and their bikes there for about £35 a day, which would include insurance.

Mr Snow said the trend for minimotorbikes was growing.

He reckons the bikes will be at the top of young people's Christmas lists this year.