Harry Finn-Conway scrawled across historic buildings including Royal Navy headquarters

A Kensal Rise man who caused more than �80,000 of damage by graffiti tagging across Brent and other London boroughs has been locked up.

Art student Harry Finn-Conway, 22, of Liddell Gardens, Kensal Rise, became renowned for defacing famous London landmarks with his trademark tags “Zerx” and “Grit”.

He was handed a 12-month jail term for 13 counts of criminal damage over the last five years at Harrow Crown Court today (Wednesday).

An investigation into the spate of graffiti was launched in November last year after enquires revealed that a tag scrawled across the Admirality Building, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy, in Whitehall, had also been spotted prolifically across buildings in Brent, Harrow and Westminster boroughs.

The tag had also been seen on sidings across the London Underground system.

Following media appeals for information, a number of people came forward with information confirming the identity of Finn-Conway.

He was arrested and bailed in January 2011 on suspicion of criminal damage and charged in February this year.

Speaking after the sentence, DI Paul Armstrong said: “Finn-Conway has become synonymous with Londoners for all the wrong reasons, tarnishing historic London landmarks and transport links with his unsightly ‘Zerx’ tag - ultimately costing the taxpayer a significant amount of money to remove.

“Finn-Conway was identified and brought to justice following an extensive joint investigation with our colleagues from the British Transport Police, and information received from helpful members of the public who responded to our pervious appeals.

“I am certain that I am not alone in failing to understand what drove Finn-Conway to commit such extensive acts of vandalism, and I hope that today’s sentence will discourage anyone else from ruining our capital’s buildings and transport in this manner.”