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Durrington tagger sentenced

Released: 04 Jan 2010

Durrington tagger Rory Tate, 18, pleaded guilty to four charges of criminal damage at Worthing Magistrates Court on Thursday 17 December. He was sentenced to 80 hours of unpaid work and a supervision order for one year. The Probation Service’s Community Payback team will supervise his sentence.

His reign of tagging lasted for about two years with at least 139 incidents, which cost Worthing Borough Council £1,606 to clean up. His 'tags' were placed over almost anything he could find. Street furniture, walls, houses and the Tesco's Superstore in New Road Durrington were consistently attacked.

Unusually, the prolonged Police investigation was not in response to reports from the public. Detective Constable (DC) Tonks pursued the matter independently, gathering local Intelligence and liaising with Worthing Council’s Street Scene Officer and the Safer Communities Team. DC Tonks said: "This was an excellent demonstration of a team effort bringing about a significant result. It should reassure the Public that the Police and the Council do take graffiti vandalism seriously."

Street scene officer Michael Barnard said: “This successful prosecution should act as a deterrent to other taggers.”

Worthing Borough Council asks people to report graffiti to their 24 hour confidential hotline: 01903 221090. They aim to remove all offensive graffiti within one working day and the majority of the remaining within two working days. If you don’t tell them it’s there, they can’t send someone to remove it

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