Taggers given work sentences

A Christchurch man who came to Dunedin and tagged three buildings has objected to doing community work, because he is ''a very busy person with work''.

However, Ryan Benjamin Keys (27) and his 26-year-old friend Caelan Walsh-McDonnell were not too busy to drive down for a popular student event - the Agnew St Party - on August 11.

Early the following morning they tagged the words ''AIMES'' and ''gMaMo'' in large lettering on two roller doors at Speights Ale House.

About the same time, the pair also struck at a University of Otago building in Albany St and graffitied a wall of Leith Liquorland with their indecipherable scrawl.

Campus Watch called police and the two men were found in Moray Pl still in possession of the paint they had used.

They were both intoxicated and admitted their acts of vandalism, the Dunedin District Court heard last week.

Keys would not explain their motives, though, stating ''police would not understand''.

After viewing photos of the damage, Judge David Saunders was wholly unimpressed.

''There's far too much of this scribble going on on buildings and it just needs to stop,'' he said.

Walsh-McDonnell wrote a letter of apology and said he had recently been enlisted to work on a 20m-long mural across the road from the Christchurch justice precinct, which had been sponsored by the local council.

''I was a stupid kid. I've since tried to take that bad side of my life and turn it into something more productive,'' he said.

He agreed with Judge Saunders' suggestion that community work was the appropriate penalty for the graffiti.

But Keys was not so keen.

''I'm a very busy person with work,'' he said.

Keys told the court he was making $1000 a week and would prefer to pay a fine.

The judge saw from his record he had been fined for similar offending in 2012 and that had not been enough to deter him from reoffending.

He sentenced Keys, on three charges of intentional damage, to 60 hours' community work and $132 reparation.

Walsh-McDonnell, who had an extra charge from tagging a Christchurch building, got 90 hours' community work along with the reparation order.

rob.kidd@odt.co.nz

 

 

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