THE Metropolitan Police says it will be considering the comments made by a coroner at Marlon Vella's inquest after it found police failed to identify the bike they sold him had been made more powerful.

The popular barber died after the Yamaha bike he was riding took a bend at around 55mph, overtaking a car, before mounting a kerb and crashing into a tree on April 27, 2020.

The inquest heard one of many "contributing factors" was that the power of the bike would have been unknown to the 21-year-old at the time of his death.

The fact the bike was a 249cc, rather than a 124cc recorded in the logbook, was due to a sequence of events that began after the model change was not recorded by Met Police.

The coroner said: "It might also be correct to say Marlon was inexperienced riding the 249cc model.

"It was possible this meant his ability to drive the bike at higher speeds round bends was diminished."

The coroner said the matter of the bike's wrong classification was to be raised at the Police Chiefs Council, adding he was content that would deal with the matter.

This paper asked the Met directly if the force accepted officers made an error, and what steps would be taken to prevent this happening again, but the Met Police provided no answer to either question.

Instead, in a statement the Met Police said: "Our thoughts and sympathies are with the family of Marlon Vella following his tragic death in April 2020.

"The Metropolitan Police Service were present during the inquest into his death and will be considering the comments made by the coroner.”

Coroner Nicholas Lane said at the inquest on Tuesday (November 2) that a black Yamaha scooter, with the same registration as Mr Vella's, was seized by Met Police in March 2019, due to that previous owner having no insurance.

The Met Police later processed the scooter for sale through an auction company.

"It would appear the scooter was purchased by Mr Vella (Marlon's dad Emmanuel)," the coroner said.

"The vehicle identification number (VIN) that was noted on the vehicle seized is identical to the one on the scooter (Marlon was driving).

"The fact the vehicle had been changed did not appear to have been picked up by anybody in the Met Police during the seizure process, prior to the sale.

"It is clearly most unfortunate Marlon, through no fault of his own, or his father's when purchasing the bike, came to be riding a 249cc scooter when the logbook showed it should have been a 124cc model."