Sentenced

Mixture of sentences handed out yesterday.

22 months
15 months
9
7
6
community service


Not putting any names up as I'm not 100% sure who went down for what words... Addresses up when I get hold of them, names up when I see what gets published. Free all involved


Report from a few days ago:



PROLIFIC TUBE GRAFFITI GANG TO BE SENTENCED

Graffiti vandals who caused £270,000 damage to Tube and train carriages will be sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court on 27/11/09.

The group of six men, all aged 20-23 from the West London area pleaded guilty in October to more than 125 criminal damage offences over a two-year period from February 2006 to November 2007.


The prolific offenders would go out mainly at night and break into train depots and stations to commit crimes.

About 40 of the offences were on the Tube and the rest were on southern train operators.

The investigation began after a car was pulled over in Twickenham by police responding to an ANPR alert which linked the car to a theft of champagne. In the boot of the red Fiat Punto, police found an assortment of spray cans, bolt cutters, gloves and several photos of sprayed trains.

BTP Detective Chief Inspector Kevin Shanahan said:

“Cameras at stations and depots filmed their brazen acts of vandalism and we used this footage to get clear facial images of them.

“They were intent on criminality and went to great lengths to plan their attacks on trains.

“They did not commit random acts of vandalism but conspired together to go out and commit crime.

“During one house search we found more than 400 photographs of the damage they had caused to trains.”

Howard Collins, Chief Operating Officer of London Underground said:

“The group’s actions cost thousands of pounds and resulted in trains being taken out of service. As well as causing unnecessary delays and distress to our passengers, they also put their own lives in danger.

“Criminal damage creates an intimidating atmosphere which is why we work hard to maintain a clean and pleasant network for our customers. We will be taking civil action to recover the debt that their damage created and will continue to devote significant and growing resources to visible policing across the transport system to make sure passengers feel comfortable and safe.”

Crown Prosecution Service London lawyer Olwen Evans said:

“This was an organised and prolific gang who worked together to plan attacks in order to cause disruption and delays. The estimated cost of these actions may be far higher if you take into account the losses suffered by the train companies as a result of these carriages being out of service.”

“The strength of the evidence which was to be put to the court by the Crown Prosecution Service is what led these defendants to plead guilty.

“Together with the British Transport Police, we gathered together a strong file of evidence which included photographs found on the defendants home computers. These pictured the defendants in the act of vandalising trains. These images allowed us to establish what the defendants ‘tags’ were and meant we could identify what damage they had each caused.”