POLICE are warning "wannabe rally drivers" they could get their cars confiscated if they drive dangerously on the ice.

Cleveland Police received at least seven reports overnight of drivers using the icy conditions to do dangerous manoeuveres including handbrake turns, "doughnuts" - involving making circular skidmarks in the ice - and skidding sideways.

The force issued a warning saying: "This is a polite but firm advisory to all those wannabe rally drivers using the current icy conditions as an excuse to fool around and inappropriately practise their sideward driving skills.

"Where a vehicle is used in this way, or otherwise amounts to careless or inconsiderate driving, a constable in uniform has significant powers to seize and confiscate your vehicle.

"So even if you manage to pull off some fancy driving and avoid dinging your alloys against a kerb (or worse) you might still find yourself with a long cold walk home and a hefty bill (hundreds of pounds) to reclaim your seized vehicle.

Reports of dangerous driving overnight included a car doing handbrake turns on Lindisfarne Road, Middlesbrough, just before 7pm on Monday.

On Morgan Drive, Guisborough, at 7.40pm there were reports of two vehicles doing doughnuts and handbrake turns on the ice, and at 8.25pm three drivers at the Belmont House car park in Guisborough were given police advice after doing handbrake turns on ice.

Just after 8pm on Kader Avenue, Middlesbrough, two vehicles were reported "driving at speed" on an icy road, then just before 9pm a vehicle was reported to be driving dangerously around Church car park in Billingham.

On Oxford Road in Thornaby, three vehicles were doing handbrake turns on the ice at 10pm, then at 10.15pm police received reports of six youths on bikes doing stunts on the icy road close to parked cars.