Tagger goes to prison for painting spree at 22 sites

A teenage tagger who hit 22 sites in one night has been sentenced to almost two years' jail by a Tauranga judge, who described the crime spree as one of the worse cases of graffiti vandalism he had encountered.

In the Tauranga District Court yesterday, Judge Thomas Ingram told 19-year-old Geoffrey Martin that the 23-month jail term, which included one month for Martin's intentionally damaging his girlfriend's car, was the price he had to pay for leaving his mark all over town. Martin had appeared in court last October and admitted 22 counts of intentional damage.

According to the summary of facts, overnight between September 3 and 4, Martin and a 16-year-old associate from Merivale went on a tagging spree with silver and black spray paint, targeting fences, a bus stop, eight lampposts, three power boxes and buildings, including a church, resulting in a $5000 reparation bill.

The tags ranged from several letters written on a power pole to tags 3m to 4m long and 1m high.

Martin initially admitted a couple of the tags, but confessed when further investigation revealed tags known to belong to the pair. Martin told police he had been bored.

Judge Ingram said there were a lot of older people in the Tauranga community and, for many, graffiti was the "visible face of crime".

"The community is entitled to a rest from you," Judge Ingram said.

Martin's lawyer Rebekah Webby had argued that a sentence starting at four months' imprisonment was appropriate.

But Judge Ingram told Ms Webby she was "not even on the same page" given the magnitude of what Martin had done, which was near to the most serious cases of graffiti vandalism he could recall in his time in Tauranga.