It could have been a scene from a Police Academy film - two officers jumping into a golf buggy to chase down troublemakers.

Sergeant Bruce Wilson and PC Doug Moore were faced with running the length of the 18-hole Hounslow Heath course when they arrived to reports of teenagers tearing up the fairway on a moped.

But help was at hand when they spotted an electric golf cart and decided to mimic eccentric Commandant Eric Lassard from the comedy police movies.

Sgt Wilson said: “PC Moore and myself got on it and started driving around the course in the direction where we thought it [the moped] was, and as we got nearer we could hear the noise.

“We came across a couple of groups of youths.”

He said the speed they got to the teenagers meant they were able to stop them and warn them not to return.

Club manager Mike Anscomb was so pleased he told the officers they could use the buggy whenever they needed to when patrolling the course, and hoped it would deter vandals from wrecking the green in the future.

He said: “They know now that police have got access to the buggy, it’s in the shed opposite the club house and they’ve been told they can use it any time they want.”

Hounslow Heath safer neighbourhood team has stepped up its presence at the club over the summer, when there is always a greater number of vandals damaging flag poles, dropping litter and even starting fires on the green.

Sgt Wilson said most of the yobs get on to the course from Staines Road or across the river Crane, but the cart will be useful in tackling antisocial behaviour.

He said: “When you are walking on certain parts of the course you can be seen from quite a distance away, but being in the buggy they are not aware we are police officers coming towards them, they think it’s either players or staff from the course and they tend to ignore it.

“If we have a presence then they get to know about it and they disappear.”