Graffiti gang who did £123,000 of damage
MANCHESTER’S most prolific gang of graffiti taggers, who filmed themselves targeting trams and trains, has been brought down after causing damage worth £123,000.
The baby-faced spraypaint crew were responsible for 125 attacks on trains and trams, often vaulting fences and taunting guards as they ran across live rail lines to tag rolling stock.
Using bolt-cutters to get into train and tram depots across Manchester, the gang filmed their exploits using GoPro stunt cameras.
The gang members – who used the tags TSR and BMS – were brought down after a British Transport Police (BTP) investigation.
Manchester Crown Court heard the five spraypainters, who were as young as 14 when they started their spree, took pride in their raids and shouted ‘f*** the BTP’ as they graffiti-bombed trains.
The five, said to come from respectable families, showed no reaction as they were handed suspended custodial sentences after they pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit criminal damage over a two-year period.
Harvey Hatton, 21 of Bleatarn Road, Stockport, works for his dad arranging musical events and comes from a ‘supportive family,’ the court heard.
Jack Walsh, 19, of Harlech Drive, Hazel Grove, a talented musician and artist who is on an apprenticeship, told a probation worker: “When I look back at who I was then, I think what a complete idiot.”
Business student Joshua Maguire, 20, of Bury Old Road, Prestwich, who will go to university in the autumn, took part in 38 of the graffiti raids, the court heard.
Maksym Tyshkul, 18, joined the graffiti gang aged just 14. He also admitted ●●Maksym Tyshkul possessing a CS gas canister found in a drawer at his home in Bury Old Road, Prestwich.
The fifth member of the gang, a youth aged 17 who cannot be named for legal reasons, took part in the crime spree from the age of 14.
Tyshkul and Maguire were each handed 10 month suspended custodial sentences, while Walsh and Hatton got eightmonth suspended sentences. The 17-year-old was handed a 12-month youth rehabilitation order. Each of the five was also ordered to carry out 140 hours of unpaid work and pay £500 towards prosecution costs.
The judge, Mr Justice Henriques, told the five, who all had no previous convictions: “I’ve seen video recordings made by yourselves. You took pride in your work and evidently gained pleasure in what you were doing.
“But what you were doing was vandalising someone else’s property which cost many tens of thousands of pounds to repair and caused a great deal of inconvenience to railway owners and members of the public who were using the trains and Metrolink.”