A group of boys playing in the snow with friends were ticketed by police – for sledging.

Jacob Mogre, 12, like most kids his age, was enjoying the time off from school by sledging down hills.

But just as he was about to set off on his next run two Police Community Support Officers quizzed him and issued a stop and search form.

Jacob's father Mike Mogré, a 43-year-old civil engineer, said: “My son's school was shut and he was with a friend sledging in Halewick Road in Lancing.

“They were at the top of the hill when one of the PCSO beckoned them down. They were asked a series of questions such as if they were playing truant and what school they went to and whether they had damaged a fence – which they hadn't.

“My son was then issued with a stop and search and street intervention form with his details which he had to sign. On the form the reason given for stopping him was 'sledging'.

“I am very surprised that they issued him with a stop and search form and the grounds for intervention was sledging down hill.

“Then they just left him feeling quite bemused.”

Jacob’s friend Charlie Stakim, 11, of Eighth Avenue, Lancing, was also issued a stop and search form for “sledging downhill towards a fence”.

Police said “several” youngsters had been issued the stop and search notices after being spoken to by PCSOs.

A spokesman said: “The word ‘sledging’ was used purely as a shorthand means of recording the event, as the relevant section of the form is not designed in a way that enables the full circumstances to be recorded.

“Clearly we do not stop people merely for sledging.”

Sussex Police said that the incident would not be stored on the boys’s criminal records, but that a record would be kept locally to say that they had been spoken to.