A project for vulnerable young people could provide an alternative to Antisocial Behaviour Orders (Asbos).

Lee Jaycock, 14, learns to change a motorcycle tyre

The Trax scheme, based in Osney Mead, Oxford, is now offering a scheme in motorbike mechanics alongside its existing car and go-kart programmes.

The expansion of the project's work comes at a time when police are concerned about youths riding illegal and stolen mopeds around Oxford's estates.

Police have said they intend to use Asbos to deal with riders who are putting their own and other's lives at risk.

But Tamsin Jones, project manager at Trax, believes they could be referred to the project.

She said: "Instead of getting an Asbo, they could be sent to Trax for a six-week programme. Then, if they continue with their behaviour they get the Asbo."

She said that people on the scheme learned road safety along with mechanics. She said: "That is the reason we started the project. There were a lot of young people riding on the roads unsafely, without helmets."

She added that many young people on mopeds were not aware of what legal documents they needed. Det Sgt Tony Lees, of Oxford's autocrime team, said 15 people had already been referred to the project by the police.

He added: "It is about trying to get to people who are right on the edge of getting into trouble."

Thanks to a £6,825 grant from the Oxfordshire Community Foundation, organisers at Trax are introducing an after-school motor- bike project.

Ian McCreath already comes to the project one day a week under an agreement with his school, Fitzharrys in Abingdon.

He had been missing lessons, but in return for turning up he spends Wednesday's learning about motorbikes.

Ian, 16, said: "I've been interested in bikes since I was 10 or 11.

"We go down the pit (off road track) a bit and most bikes go wrong there."

The project has been praised in the past for its work with teenagers who are at risk of offending.

Amanda Marting donated two motorbikes to Trax after her son Charlie died while a passenger on his stepfather's bike.

Charlie had been in- volved with the project before his death.

She said: "Charlie had a couple of brushes with the law. He had been arrested and could have been in a lot more trouble.

"Trax helped him because it gave him a day out of school, which he loved."