Graffiti criminal in Chichester cleans up his tags rather than court

An 18-year-old man covered Chichester city centre with his graffiti tags but he has ended up cleaning it all off rather than facing court for his crimes.

He was initially arrested by Sussex Police when they discovered he had been spraying graffiti around the centre of Chichester. Chichester District Council had been working with the police to track the particular graffiti tag and were quickly able to link his tag to a number of different locations around the city.

Rather than charge the man with criminal damage, CDC and Sussex Police agreed to let the man take part in a Community Resolution where he simply admitted his wrong doings and cleaned them all up. 

Sussex Police introduced the use of this system in January of this year with the focus of making offenders face up to their crimes and then making direct amends to their community. It will only be used if both the offender and the victim (CDC in this case) agree to it.

The man worked with Graffiti Solutions who are employed by CDC to remove graffiti from all over the district. The system and the experience he gained allowed him to see just how hard it is to remove graffiti and also how expensive. Two days a week are spent tackling this type of crime which is costing the taxpayer around £27,000 a year throughout the distict. 

Piers Taylor, Chichester council community safety officer, was impressed by the impact the system had in this particular case:

"We don't expect Community Resolution to work in every case, but we have seen a real difference with this young man who genuinely wanted to make amends and put something back in to his community."

What do you think about Community Resolution? It clearly worked here so should it be used more often? Maybe you feel every offender should go to court? Feel free to comment whatever your thoughts are!

Photo thanks to Franco Folini on Flickr!