A Folkestone graffiti tagger who cost his victims a total of £51,000 in damages has been jailed for a year.
On Wednesday 3 June 2020 at around 7.30am, Jordan Piper sprayed graffiti on two fence panels belonging to a guest house in Cheriton Road. CCTV captured the incident and it was shared on social media. A member of the public said he had seen the same style of graffiti in other areas of Folkestone and the matter was reported to Kent Police to investigate.
At around 12pm the same day Piper was also caught on camera spraying graffiti on the wall of a residential property in The Parade, whilst it was later identified that two vans parked in Brockman Road on 3 and 4 June had also suffered similar damage.
On Friday 12 June, outside Sainsbury’s on the Park Farm Industrial Estate, Piper was caught on camera spray-painting the same symbol on a brick wall around the back of the store. He was seen walking away before getting into a vehicle and leaving the area. The tag left on the wall was identical to the damage caused at the guest house.
It transpired that the same spray-painted design had been left in various other places across the Folkestone area, however not everyone had reported the damage to the police. As enquiries continued, other local homeowners and businesses did come forward including a number situated in Castle Hill Avenue, Middleburg Square and Sandgate Road.
Piper, 31, was identified and arrested at his home in Clifton Road, Folkestone, on Wednesday 24 June 2020. Subsequent searches of his property resulted in the discovery and seizure of a spray can along with clothing, sketch books, paint pens and artwork.
Following his guilty plea to twenty counts of criminal damage, he was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court on Friday 18 June 2021.
Kent Police’s investigating officer, PC Chloe West, said: ‘Piper deliberately went out to deface property for his own enjoyment with no concept of the time it would take to remove it and the costs involved. Kent Police works closely with the local authority to deal with graffiti, which is classed as criminal damage and is therefore a crime. It can cause misery to people living and working in our communities and I hope Piper’s prison sentence acts as a warning to anyone who thinks this is acceptable.
‘I would encourage members of the public to report graffiti to us and to the local council so we can continue to take action against offenders.’
https://www.kent.police.uk/ro/report/ocr/af/how-to-report-a-crime/
https://folkestone-hythe.gov.uk/report-a-problem/graffiti
