Graffiti, Fly-posting and the Law
Graffiti is criminal damage under the Criminal Damage Act 1971.
There are no legal sites for graffiti within the Royal Borough.
Those caught in the act of graffiti or with intent to undertake
graffiti within the borough will be prosecuted.
If the value of criminal damage exceeds £5,000 the maximum
penalty for those aged 18 or over is ten years imprisonment and for
those aged 12-17 years the maximum custodial penalty is a detention
and training order of up to 24 months.
Where the damage is less than £5,000 the maximum sentence is
three months imprisonment or a fine of £2,500 for adult
offenders.
An alternative sanction for minor graffiti offences is the issue
of a penalty notice. Under the Anti-social Behavior Act 2003 Police
Community Support Officers and those persons accredited under the
community safety scheme are allowed to issue penalty notices of
£50.
Schemes like the recent Home Office 'Name That Tag' offer a
reward for information on prolific graffiti writers.
Visit the Home Office
website for more information.
The British Transport Police also run an information sharing
database of tags which can be accessed by Local Authorities. This
database enables the full extent of the damage caused by graffiti
to be collated and taken into account by the court in
sentencing.
Section 48 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 gives local
authorities the power to serve graffiti removal notices on certain
bodies responsible for the surface where graffiti has appeared.
These bodies include the owners of street furniture (bus shelters,
street signs, phone boxes etc). The notice gives a minimum of 28
days for the removal of the graffiti, if after that time it has not
been removed the local authority can remove it and can recover its
costs.
Fly-posting
Fly-posting is the posting of stickers, posters and other
advertising without the consent of the owner of the property.
Street furniture in particular is afflicted.
Fly-posting is an offence under section 224(3) of the Town and
Country Planning Act 1990 and the Highways Act 1980 making it a
criminal offence to display an advertisement in contravention of
regulations. Advertisers can be fined up to £2,500 on conviction
for this offence and in the case of a continuing offence £250 per
day after a conviction.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 allows Police Community
Support Officers and those persons accredited under the community
safety scheme to issue penalty notices to the individual who
physically puts the fly-poster up (rather than the advertised
business).
Graffiti and fly-posters attached to your property are criminal
damage and should be reported to the police.