A group of teenage boys were left shocked after they were each fined £30 for cycling on a pavement to avoid oncoming traffic.

Police in Brighton and Hove have launched a crackdown on cyclists who ride on pavements, through red lights and the wrong way down one-way streets.

As part of the blitz, friends Dean Fears, 16, Chris King, 16, and James Williams, 15, all from Hove, were handed £30 fixed penalty tickets by PC Andrew Salmon after they rode their bikes down Holmes Avenue and went on to the pavement as they turned into Old Shoreham Road.

One of the boy's parents has accused the police of "going completely over the top" and picking on soft targets.

Now the boys are considering whether to contest the issuing of tickets in court.

Dean's younger brother Mark, 12, was also riding with the group but PC Salmon decided against giving him a ticket because of his age.

The group was stopped by a police car and told they should not ride on the pavement as it was an offence.

The boys told the officers they had not known it was against the law and it was sometimes safer to ride on the pavement than on a busy road.

They rode off with the words of the officer "Don't do it again" ringing in their ears.

The police car followed them as they turned into Amhurst Crescent and at that point Dean said he was forced to ride up on the pavement to avoid an oncoming car.

PC Salmon got out of the police car, said he had warned them only minutes ago about riding on the pavement and told them he was giving them a fixed-penalty ticket.

He also warned the boys they should be wearing luminous strips and gave them some.

Dean, of Coleridge Street, Hove said: "We were just shocked. We just took the tickets.

"We weren't abusive to the officers or anything like that."

Dean's father, James said: "I couldn't believe it when he came home and showed me a £30 fixed penalty ticket for riding on the pavement, telling him to pay up within 28 days.

"Everybody knows that sometimes it is safer to ride on the pavement than in the road."

A spokesman for Hove police said the tickets were fully justified, especially as the boys had been warned about riding on the pavement minutes before.