Tagger cleans up graffiti he left on walls of a pub
A man who scrawled graffiti on the wall of a pub ended up using a bit more of his own elbow grease to clean up the mess.
Jude Abraham Ardern got caught out tagging the side of a New Plymouth bar in August.
Since appearing in court earlier this month Ardern has spent some of his time removing any trace of the black vivid pen.
The summary of facts outlined how on August 13 about 1.30pm, Ardern was walking his dog along New Plymouth’s Tukapa St.
He stopped outside the Nag ’N’ Noggin bar where he got out a vivid marker and began to tag the exterior walls with graffiti.
This included leaving behind his signature ‘‘Judox’’ as well as pictures depicting cannabis leaves.
Ardern spent ‘‘some time’’ on his illegal art work before leaving the property, which was defaced by a significant amount of graffiti.
At another stop that afternoon, Ardern wrote ‘‘Die Chris’’ on the side of a shed on David St.
Security camera footage from the Nag ‘N’ Noggin was used to identify Ardern, who was arrested a short time later.
The 32-year-old previously pleaded guilty to two charges of wilful damage and appeared for sentencing in the New Plymouth District Court.
At his last court appearance on September 13, Ardern was given a fortnight to clean off the graffiti.
Yesterday, Ardern was happy to tell community magistrate Lesley Jensen that he had made good on his word to fix the damage.
‘‘I’ve cleaned it all up,’’ he said. Ardern said he was an alcoholic but was in a much better head space than he had been at the time of the offending.
‘‘I’ve learnt to deal with life’s stressors a lot better,’’ Ardern told the court hearing.
Ardern was convicted and placed on a good behaviour bond for six months.