‘King of taggers’ jailed

Daniel Halpin who littered Wandsworth and other neighbouring boroughs with hundreds of unsightly tags is believed to have cost taxpayers more than £200,000 in clean-up costs.

He is believed to have sprayed various different tags, including his main one "tox" 613 times across Wandsworth. Most were found on railway property but he also struck at bridges, subways, noticeboards and bus shelters.

Evidence provided by the council's anti-graffiti team helped convict the 24-year-old from Camden, north London of seven counts of criminal damage. 

The dossier of evidence compiled by the council's team also helped convict another vandal, 24-year-old Nicholas Rowley from Clapham, who was jailed for a year after admitting six vandalism charges.

The case was brought to court following a lengthy investigation by British Transport Police.

Sentencing Halpin at Blackfriars Crown Court, Judge Clarke said: "There has to be a deterrent aspect. These offences have gone on, in your own admission, since the year 2000. You have been using TOX for a decade. Therefore I am sentencing you accordingly. Although you and others regard yourselves as artistic, there is nothing artistic about what you do."

Det Con Will Livings, the investigating officer, said: "The costs of graffiti are substantial for the railway industry in terms of repairs and clean-up, and can leave permanent scars on the infrastructure.

"The financial costs have to be borne by someone, and that someone is ultimately the fare-paying passenger. Trains are taken out of service for cleaning, sometimes for days at a time, causing disruption and delays for passengers."
 
Fellow BTP investigator Det Con Jez Whalley said the evidence provided by the council's team was of "an excellent standard and will now fit seamlessly into our operation surrounding these prolific offenders....they will greatly assist the overall investigation in improving the strength of our case."

The council's graffiti team is based in the housing department and was set up in 1994 to tackle and remove graffiti on private property, in the borough's parks and on the council's housing estates, on places such as communal areas and walls.

It provides a free graffiti removal service which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week? It has a zero tolerance approach towards graffiti and anti-social behaviour and will seek to take legal action against perpetrators wherever possible.

Last year, the team cleaned up more than 2,400 incidents of graffiti, removing nearly 40,000 square metres of tags and other forms of graffiti.

Once the team have obtained the permission of the landowner, it aims to remove all offensive abusive, obscene or racist graffiti within 24 hours. For other types it has a three day target to meet. Last year it met its offensive graffiti target in 99 per cent of cases and scored a 100 per cent success rate for the removal of other forms.

To contact the service, call its 24-hour hotline on (020) 8871 7049, email graffiti@wandsworth.gov.uk or text 07797 805456 (start your message with the word "graffiti" and state where the graffiti is located).

ENDS