The father of a teenager who has raised thousands for charity has spoken of his anger after his son’s customised bike was seized by police.

Jake Hodgson, aged 13, who is a Young Ambassador for Hospice Isle of Man, built the bike as part of his Duke of Edinburgh award, but had it confiscated at the weekend for possible infringements of Road Traffic regulations.

His hybrid machine is a mountain bike with road tyres which is fitted with a small, low-powered, petrol motor for off-roading.

Police have sent the bike for testing at the Vehicle Examination Centre.

Dad Craig said: ’Jake does so much for charity and is always out and about. He’s not sitting at home doing nothing. He’s shown initiative for his DoE award and then gets pulled over for something like this. It just makes me angry.’

Ballakermeen High School student Jake had been building his bike since November.

Having recently completed it, he had been testing it out, making sure he used its manual pedals when he was on open roads.

On Sunday morning, he had got up early and ridden his bike along Marine Drive, where he said he did use the engine while on the closed road section, but had switched it off again before returning to public roads.

He then cycled into town and had his breakfast in The Caff in Lord Street at about 9am.

Jake said from his home in Douglas: ’I was sitting having my breakfast and talking to people when I noticed that a police van had pulled into the car park by Barbary Coast.

’That van was joined by a second and two officers came over, looked at the bike and came inside.

’Because I was the only one with cycling gear, they asked me if it was my bike.

’I said it was and they asked me to go outside and talk about it.’

Jake said the officers, one female, one male, spoke to him about his bike and said he had been reported for driving a modified petrol bike.

Having never been in trouble with the police before, he said, he panicked and admitted he had been riding the bike with the engine on, but was never asked where this was.

Jake added: ’One of the officers told me "we’ll have to take your bike to Douglas police station" which the male officer did.

’The female officer said I could finish my breakfast, so I gulped down my tea and she took me home.’

When he got home, Jake’s parents, both driving instructors, were told what had happened by the officer.

Jake’s father Craig said: ’He admitted he had the engine on, fair enough, but they never asked him where, which if they would have done they would have known it was off-road.

’But more importantly, they questioned a 13-year-old on the pavement outside a cafe without his parents there, which I don’t think they can do.

’The officer who came to the door said it was "nothing to worry about" and that the bike should be back to us that afternoon, but they still haven’t contacted us.’

Mr Hodgson said that when he rang to ask what had happened to the bike, a sergeant on duty told him: ’Jake had admitted riding the bike with the engine on and could be facing a quite a number of offences which could be dealt with by the youth justice service’.

He added: ’He’s a kid who only uses the engine off-road.

’If he was constantly in trouble then I’d probably understand, but he’s never been in trouble before.

’There are officers who go into schools and do so much good in the community and getting teenagers on side.

’But then things like this can so easily undo that work.’

Not be deterred by the morning’s events, Jake spent his Sunday afternoon at Tesco bag packing to raise money for Hospice Isle of Man.

He has raised nearly £9,000 for so far.

A police spokesman said Jake’s bike had been taken away for testing at the Vehicle Examination Centre in Tromode.

He said because it is fitted with a petrol engine it would be classed as a mechanically propelled vehicle under the Road Traffic regulations.

The owner would need a licence and insurance and the vehicle would need to be fitted with a suitable braking system, the spokesman said.