Beam has been accused of exceeding its limits in multiple cities around Australasia and concealing the extra scooters from third-party monitoring software – in some cases denying councils their cut of revenue-share-per fide deals. Wellington council earlier told the Herald it took a flat 11c per ride from Beam.

The Wellington council’s chief planning officer, Liam Hodgetts, said staff were continuing to work through information from Beam and Ride Report.

The information about the e-scooters was concerning and the council had decided to temporarily suspend Beam’s licence to trade in public, effectively stopping Beam from operating in Wellington City until the council’s investigation was completed and a final decision made, Hodgetts said.

“Wellington City elected members set a cap on the number of e-scooters that could be deployed at any time to ensure a balance between having enough devices to meet demand while reducing the risk to pedestrians of footpath clutter. As such we cannot continue to have Beam operate while we continue our analysis of what has happened,” he said.

The council said Beam must remove its scooters and e-bikes from the city by 5pm on Sunday, September 1.

It said it would not be making further comment until the investigation is completed.

With reporting by Herald staff.