Posts Tagged ‘International’

Australians jailed over graffiti

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

Six “intelligent and well-educated” Australians have been jailed for causing damage put at £70,000 during a six-month graffiti spree in London.

The men targeted Tube and overground trains, Southwark Crown Court heard.

The graffiti artists, who all admitted criminal damage, were caught in Ilford, east London, by police officers who heard rattling cans and smelt paint.

Sentencing, Judge Michael Gledhill said it was “appalling” to see “talented” graffiti artists sitting in the dock.

Ringleader of the graffiti gang – called the AMF – Marcus Wisman, 22, was sentenced to 16 months for conspiracy to commit criminal damage.

‘Talented artists’

Scott Mulhearn, 21, Adrian Hing, 22, Luke Vassell, 23, Jack Shumack, 24, and Alex Wisman, 24, were also jailed over the vandalism attacks between late summer and Boxing Day last year.

Mulhearn received 14 months imprisonment, Shumack and Hing were both sentenced to 12 months, Vassell received a 10-month sentence and Alex Wisman was jailed for eight months.

The court heard that each of the men has an interest in graphic art.

Marcus Wisman, Shumack, Hing and Vassell have all either worked as graphic designers or hope to train to do so.

Sentencing, Judge Gledhill said: “Each of you are intelligent well-educated young men, hard working and capable of holding down jobs.

“Each of you are talented artists, in terms of graffiti artists, so to have to see the six of you sitting in the dock of this court about to be sentenced is quite appalling.”

All of the men will serve half their sentence on licence and will not face deportation.

British Transport Police detectives found evidence that the gang had also left its mark in Australia and Japan, after discovering photographic evidence of previous vandalism attacks.

[Via:BBC]

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Posted in Australian Graffiti, Graffiti News, Jail Time, Pig Enforcement, Who Got Bagged? | 3 Comments »

Graffiti Vandal: Arrests

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
POLICE investigating the North Bay graffiti vandal ‘Skeet’ have made two arrests.
Insp Mark Grange, who is leading the investigation, said a 21-year-old man and a man of 22 had been released on police bail until Monday.

He said: “They have both been released pending further statements from the complainants. There has also been a forensic examination of the men’s phones.”

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Posted in Graffiti News, International, Pig Enforcement, UK Graffiti, Who Got Bagged? | No Comments »

Group berates graffiti growth

Monday, April 7th, 2008

[Via:www.24heures.ch]

At a time when Swiss cities should be putting their best foot forward for the upcoming Euro 2008 competition, major cities are struggling to deal with widespread vandalism from graffiti artists. Suissetraffic.com, a group lobbying for a better urban environment, has called for action to deal with the proliferation of “tags” that have disfigured dozens of buildings in Lausanne. The group has posted dozens of photos on its website to illustrate the extent of the depredations. Both public and private buildings have been hit by the graffiti vandals, who have also scrawled on mailboxes, garbage bins, public benches and traffic signs.

The graffiti has “invaded” the downtown, said Didier Reichenbach, creator of the website. The group has called for the municipality to systematically clean it up as soon as it appears, rather than allowing it to proliferate. Left unchecked, the graffiti engenders a feeling of insecurity and lawlessness, it says. Reichenbach recalls that in 2002 the city provided SFr660,000 in financing to clean up 17,600 square meters of wall space scarred by the scribbling. Since then, the appearance of public buildings has improved, but not those in the private sphere, he said.

With two months to go before Euro 2008, being jointly hosted by Switzerland and Austria, tourist officials are also concerned about the problem, which seems to have worsened in the past few months. “It harms the image of the city,” said an official from the Lausanne tourist office. Pierre-Alain Matthey, an official from the municipality, acknowledged that the amount of graffiti has grown. But he said the city by law is powerless to deal with those that appear on private property. “The number of tags is down in the public domain,” he said.

The issue has also afflicted property in Geneva, where authorities are considering punishing offenders by making them clean up their handiwork as part of a community service program. The difficulty appears to be in catching culprits in the act. Some law-makers have advocated the expanded use of video surveillance cameras to catch vandals, although this has raised concerns from civil liberty advocates.

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Posted in International | No Comments »