Man arrested after graffiti crackdown (From Your Local Guardian)

Man arrested after graffiti crackdown in Mole Valley

12:57pm Monday 16th January 2012 in Epsom By Lauren May

A man has been arrested during a crackdown on graffiti by Mole Valley police officers.

CCTV footage of a suspect was circulated to the team and during a routine patrol on Monday, 8 January, PCSO Simon Tillman received information which led to an arrest later that day.

Mole Valley neighbourhood sergeant John Pearson, said: “Graffiti is not just an eye-sore but it is criminal damage and several items of property have already been damaged across the town.

“Graffiti can seriously damage the reputation of an area, the tags are mindless acts of criminal damage which can lead onto other anti-social issues and we want to prevent this from happening.

“We are now releasing pictures of two other tags formed of the words ‘King’ and ‘Char’ found around the area which we would like to find the owners of, so if you have any information please get in touch.”

The graffiti ‘tags’ have appeared in Epsom, Leatherhead, Ashtead, Dorking and Bookham and an investigation is now under way by the British Transport Police and neighbourhood teams to trace the culprit.

The arrested man has been released on police bail until Friday, February 3, while the investigation continues.

Anyone with information on graffiti in the area should contact Surrey Police on 101 quoting reference MV/12/41, or the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.