KIELY:GRAFFITI VANDAL SNARED AFTER TIP-OFF FROM GERMAN POLICE
A graffiti artist who caused more than £10,000 of damage to trains five years ago was caught after police found pictures of his handiwork at his home, a court heard.
James Kiely was arrested after arriving in the UK on November 13, 2009, following a tip-off from German police investigating vandalism in Berlin.
Officers later searched his home and found digital photos that linked the suspect to a spate of incidents spanning the country in which trains had been spray-painted, Blackfriars Crown Court heard.
The offences, using his trademark tag ‘BORN’, took place between January 2004 and December 2005.
Kiely, 29, was sentenced to nine months imprisonment suspended for 12 months after pleading guilty to five counts of criminal damage.
He was ordered to pay three train companies a total of £11,500 compensation and carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
The judge, Mr Recorder Oscar Del Fabbro told him his actions had had a ‘profound effect on a lot of people.’
The judge said: ‘This was large-scale graffiti on these trains.
‘It must have involved pre-planning, finding the opportunities to enter private premises.
‘It is not the art that is criminal – the art is one that people might appreciate – but what they don’t appreciate is art being put on to trains in the way which creates this blight.
‘The costs of clearing this up are phenomenal.’
The court heard that Kiely, a band tour manager, spray-painted train carriages at Victoria station in January 2004, and again at a depot in Strawberry Hill, Richmond later the same month.
The following year, his tag appeared on a corner shop’s security shutters, while other trains were vandalised in sidings in Treherbert, south Wales, and in Westbury, Wiltshire.
Jagrati Shah, prosecuting, said police had been aware of the tag BORN ‘for some time’ but had not known the identity of the culprit.
She said: ‘On the day of this defendant’s arrest, he was returning from Berlin by Eurostar.
‘Police had information from German police that they had an incident of graffiti there, and he was subsequently arrested.
‘A search was carried out at his home address and various items were taken – a camera, and a computer within which were found photographs of the tag.’
Sandra Paul, defending, said that since causing the damage Kiely had ‘not just grown up but found a legitimate outlet’ as a tour manager.
She said: ‘He has gone on to do a great deal with his talents.’
Kiely, of Myrdle Street, Whitechapel, east London, admitted five counts of criminal damage and was ordered to pay a total of £11,500 compensation to Arriva Trains Wales, First Great Western, and South West Trains, and a further £461 in prosecution costs.
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