City teen faces 102 graffiti charges

First arrest by joint graffiti team

A teenager who has previously been charged over graffiti vandalism has been busted again by police.

The teen, who is now an adult but can’t be named because he was under 18 for some of the most recent incidents, faces more than 100 charges for a graffiti tagging spree between July 2011 and January.

“He has a history of graffiti vandalism from the past and obviously it’s just a reoccurring issue with him,” said Const. Dave Ladic of the joint graffiti investigation team.

The teen faces 46 charges of mischief under $5,000 for allegedly vandalizing signs, bridges, lampposts, newspaper boxes and other items around the city.

He also faces 48 counts of breach of recognizance, six counts of breach of a probation order and one count of possession of marijuana.

A further charge of mischief over $5,000 is related to graffiti placed on a warehouse that was estimated to have sustained $10,000 to $15,000 in damage.

“They did a fairly substantial job on that,” said Ladic.

That case may have involved more than one person, police said.

“Based on the number of different tags that were there would indicate that there were a number of different people there,” Ladic said. “One person typically doesn’t have more than one tag.”

The case is the first arrest by the newly created joint graffiti investigation team, which brings together investigators from police, bylaw and transit.

Instead of looking into cases separately, the team brings all investigators together.

“This would be the first one as a team that we’ve done,” said Ladic. “We were all able to collaborate in the office.”