£100K GRAFFITI VANDAL

STRUCK IN 13 LONDON BOROUGHS JAILED FOR 26 MONTHS


A prolific graffiti vandal who caused over £100, 000 worth of damage across 13 London boroughs has been jailed for 26 months following a British Transport Police (BTP) investigation.


***** *****, 24, of *****, *****, Isle of Wight, was also given a five-year anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) after being sentenced at Blackfriars Crown Court on Thursday, 18 November 2010.



The court heard that ***** – who pleaded guilty to 25 counts of criminal damage – caused damage over a period of three years between March 2007 and July this year.

He targeted trains, stations and infrastructure, as well as shops, across 13 London boroughs, as well as in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire.* (N.B. Full list of locations below)

The total damage caused by ***** was estimated as being in excess of £113,000.

***** was arrested on 6 June this year after being linked to graffiti damage caused near to Hungerford Bridge in London.

After attending and taking photographs of the damage and a known ‘tag’, detectives from BTP’s Graffiti Unit checked the tag against a police graffiti database, linking it to *****, as well as other locations where the tag had been daubed.

Detectives executed search warrants at ****’s temporary address in *****, south London, as well as his girlfriend’s home in north London, and recovered a number of items relating to graffiti, including CDs with photos of graffiti damage, as well as paraphernalia such as spray paint cans, marker pens and photographs of **** associating with other known graffiti vandals.

After being questioned in custody, **** was released on police bail while investigators carried out further enquiries.

Using handwriting analysis, detectives then set about comparing the tag at Hungerford Bridge with police photographs of the same tag in various other locations, with the unique style and characteristics of each tag confirming him as the culprit.

The court also heard that **** continued to offend while on police bail, daubing trains with graffiti at Ealing Broadway depot and Barking depot in July 2010.

Detective Sergeant Jeremy Walley, of BTP’s Graffiti Unit, said:

"*****’s vandalism was nothing more than wanton damage that costs thousands of pounds to clean up.

"Writing graffiti on the railway or elsewhere is not a harmless pastime and we will continue to work closely with train operating companies, Network Rail and other police forces to reduce these criminal acts.”