Off-road bikers and 4×4 drivers who are ripping up Llangollen’s Horseshoe Pass could be hunted down by police helicopter.

Police and countryside experts today launched a campaign against what they call an illegal and dangerous menace.

They want people to carry a special telephone number with them to report the vandals and are warning offenders they can be fined up to £20,000 and have their vehicles seized and crushed.

Anyone seeing illegal off-roaders tearing up the landscape can immediately report them by calling 0845 607 1002.

The campaign to protect them is backed by North Wales Police, the Countryside Council for Wales and the Forestry Commission Wales who say the damage is so bad it can be see from satellite photography.

The Heather and Hillforts Project’s Moorland Field Officer Nick Critchley said: “We have a fantastic natural environment here which is under threat but we are fighting back.”

Sergeant Jon Turton, of North Wales Police, based in Denbigh, said: “At weekends this area is becoming a destination for organised groups from the Midlands and the North West – it is dangerous and damaging – you can see the evidence of what they’ve done on Google Earth.”

He said on nearby Llantysilio Mountain, illegal bikers had created a race track that was damaging the ramparts of an Iron Age hill fort and crossed a Bronze Age burial mound over 4,000 years old.