Graffiti vandal who started his £45k rampage in Neasden is sent to jail
Jamie Cowley has been jailed for 18 months - Credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images
A graffiti vandal who caused £45,000 worth of damage to Tube trains across London after starting his rampage in Neasden, has been jailed for 18 months.
Snaresbrook Crown Court heard Jamie Cowley, 25, from Hornchurch in Essex, started targeting trains in 2006 when he struck in Brent, Arnos Grove and Barking
Armed with his spray canisters, he daubed graffiti in Farringdon Sidings and in Upminster during 2007.
Jurors heard he caused £1,437 worth of damage at Mile End station in December 2007 and left a £1,322 clean-up bill at Richmond Sidings in southwest London in March 2009.
His graffiti attacks at Amersham and Rickmansworth Sidings in 2010 caused £6,291 worth of damage.
Judge William Kennedy told the labourer, who was not arrested until last year: “I am told that the value of the damage caused, by its cost to repair, was £45,000.
“I give you credit for your plea but as has been said, it is not simply the case of a silly young man causing silly, irresponsible damage.
Most Read
- 1 Two charged after police discharge taser during Kingsbury vehicle stop
- 2 2 men attacked by group after fight breaks out at Queensbury Tube Station
- 3 Harlesden shop fire 'caused by barbecue'
- 4 Most wanted: 7 people sought in connection with 11 robberies across London
- 5 Jailed: Kilburn man linked to 8 knifepoint robberies in St John's Wood area
- 6 Injured moped driver appeal after Dollis Hill collision
- 7 Road closed after man's death in Willesden
- 8 Complaints of 'chaos' after Harry Styles' Wembley gigs
- 9 Plea date set for men accused of fatal stabbing in Neasden
- 10 Three arrested and taser discharged during vehicle stop in Kingsbury
“The creation of this amount of damage withdraws trains from service and causes untold problems to the travelling public. Much work has to be done to put things right. I have no alternative but to send you to prison.”
Cowley will be given an Asbo when he is released from custody, meaning he will not be allowed to enter any depot or property owned by a rail operator that is not open to the public.
As part of the order he must not carry paint, permanent pens, glass cutters, permanent ink contained in any form or spray paint, in public. He admitted 15 charges of damaging property while 14 similar counts, which he denied, were ordered to lie on the court file.
