Inside e-bike blight that forced Ant McPartlin to move home with 1000s littering streets & yobs using them to deal drugs

E-BIKES have now become a common sight in our major cities.

They may be loved by commuters but are hated by many residents, including Ant McPartlin, who claimed he quit living in London after becoming “f****ng sick” of them being dumped outside his mansion.

But beyond the irritation, a Sun on Sunday investigation has found the pay-as-you-go rides are now being abused — to advertise and courier drugs.

We can also reveal the proportion of serious injuries involving hired e-bikes, which include Lime, Forest and Beryl cycles, has soared by 1,600 per cent in less than a decade, with flagrant breaches of traffic laws.

Reform MP Robert Jenrick said: “The least we should expect of companies making big profits is that their bikes aren’t advertising criminal activity and aren’t clogging up pavements for pedestrians.”

Our investigators found that some Lime bikes, which are left on pavements, had been plastered with stickers advertising drugs, sleeping tablets and other products.

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Earlier this year Fawad Ali, 23, was sentenced to three years in prison after police in Cowley, Oxford, spotted him swerving on a Lime bike while using his phone.

They found 3.8g of cocaine, 110g of cannabis, and 24.3g of magic mushrooms, alongside £165 in cash.

There has also been a series of bike injuries.

After they were introduced in 2017, Transport for London data showed they accounted for just one per cent of serious cycling injuries.

That figure has now surged to 17 per cent. Nationwide, more than 100,000 rented bikes are being used by 2.6million cyclists.

Almost one in three collisions between cyclists and pedestrians in London involve a hired e-bike.

Faulty seats and brakes on some of the 30kg bicycles, which are legally limited to a top speed of 15.5mph, have caused gruesome injuries — some of which doctors are calling “Lime bike leg”.

Jerry Tsang, an expert in orthopaedic trauma surgery and limb reconstruction at Queen Mary University in London, said: “It’s a nickname for a new pattern of injuries that doctors are seeing.

“Typically, when people come off bikes, you see collarbone fractures and ankle sprains.

“But because of the weight of the bikes, and because of the motors, people are getting injuries that you more commonly see with moped and low-speed motorcycle accidents.

“That means injuries to the shinbone, open fractures with the bone piercing through the skin and dislocations.”

Sam Collard, partner and head of cycling accident claims at Osborne’s Law, added: “We used to get the odd e-bike claim but since the beginning of last year, we have had at least ten inquiries a month.

“Part of the issue is the weight of the bikes. We have lots of cases where the bike falls on top of people and we are seeing fractures to legs, arms and pelvises.

“We have seen serious injuries including brain injuries. People have been hit by cars because of defects to bikes. Seats have dropped off or there have been defects with the brakes. We have claims ranging from £20,000 to £100,000.”

Lime is now led by Taiwan-born American Wayne Ting, who has been CEO since 2020 and helped steer the company to a £1.3billion stock market flotation this year.

The former Uber exec and senior White House adviser now lives in a £4million mansion set in 1.82 acres of desert in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

But while he lives in the lap of luxury, some, like Ant, have expressed frustration at the bikes clogging up pavements.

Although some parts of the UK require e-bikes to be left in designated docking stations or parking bays, rules vary considerably. In London, where there are 53,000 of the bikes, different rules apply in different boroughs, while in Greater Manchester, Lime bikes must be left in designated parking bays.

Braille teacher Tesfai Berhane, 71, from Lambeth, South London, had to be treated in hospital for a month after falling over one.

He has fallen over cycles including Lime and Forest.

He said: “I am completely blind and walk with a stick. In the past year I’ve fallen four times over a hired bike.”

Sarah Gilbey, street access campaign co-ordinator at National Federation of the Blind of the UK, added: “They’ve turned some of the UK’s streets into the Wild West.

“It should be mandatory that all of these bikes are parked in designated bays.”

Last year, Transport for London statistics showed that around 1,200 people were killed or seriously injured while cycling.

Almost a fifth were on hired e-bikes.

Elliot Poole, 32, a systems analyst from South London, launched legal action against Lime after he came off a hired bike when the seat fell off in February last year.

He said: “I have no recollection of what happened but apparently, I fell off, hit my head and managed to get home on a bus despite having no idea what was going on. My wife was really scared as I was asking, ‘Where am I? How did I get here?’. I was acting like a zombie. I only really came around three hours later in A&E.”

In Brighton, grandmother Christina Marchand, 75, was left with a broken wrist and fractured hip after a teenager riding a rented Beryl electronic bike collided with her on a pavement in 2024.

Last year, a woman in Dorset needed stitches and her dog had a fractured hip when two Beryl e-bike riding hoodlums slammed into them along Weymouth seafront.

She needed six stitches to her chin and her pet needed a £390 operation.

In Stevenage, Herts, there have been complaints of inoperable and vandalised bikes littering the town.

The same problem has afflicted Bradford since LNER Beryl Bikes became available to hire in March.

In Birmingham, there have been complaints of children as young as 12 using rented e-bikes to deal drugs and kick cars.

In Milton Keynes, Lime has been under pressure to crack down on the antisocial behaviour of riders.

In London, retired shop worker Jane Ouartsi suffered a broken femur, fractured collarbone and two spinal fractures when she was hit in a pedestrianised square in the West End in 2023.

The rider of the Lime e-bike was ten, according to reports, but was not caught.

Research has revealed e-bike riders are over 40 per cent more likely to get a head or neck injury, compared with pedal bikes.

A study looking at e-bike riders in North London, published in The Journal of Emergency Medicine, found alcohol was more often involved in e-bike accidents than normal cycling incidents — at eight per cent against three per cent.

It also found 81 per cent of e-bike riders were not wearing helmets and there was a 41 per cent greater risk of head and neck injuries.

Grace Willsher, head of young people’s services at drugs, alcohol and mental health charity We Are With You, said of the drug QR codes: “The landscape has changed, and dealers now have a much wider reach and increased visibility through QR codes and platforms like Snapchat and Telegram.”

The charity says it has seen emerging use of QR codes, including on lampposts outside schools, but this is the first time they’ve heard of them on bikes.

Meanwhile, it has been claimed technology used by Lime is flawed, meaning riders can park where they please, without punishment.

The company says in areas without docking spots, bikes must be parked “neatly to the side of the pavement”.

Riders are asked to send a photo of how they have parked to the App.

But on a number of occasions, a rider was able to park where the bike caused an obstruction — something the tech should prevent.

Lime says inconsiderate riders who flout rules get a warning, followed by escalating fines, and repeat offenders are banned.

A Lime spokeswoman said: “Safety informs everything we do — from how we design and maintain our vehicles, to our rider education, and how we work with cities.

“We take the challenge of poor parking very seriously.

“To increase capacity and make parking more intuitive for riders, we’ve invested more in parking than any other e-bike operator in London, funding more than 3,400 new parking bays and a 400-person-strong on-street team working across the capital to manage busy bays, move incorrectly parked bikes and keep streets clear.

“We are committed to continuing to work with councils to improve cycling infrastructure and create a safer, more connected network.”