Police warning over Shrewsbury town centre graffiti

Several of the tags have appeared in the town over the past few days and Sergeant Richard Coles said police in Shrewsbury have successful methods to find those responsible for the vandalism.

Officers tweeted:

Sergeant Coles said: "We have a well practised strategy when it comes to graffiti.

"We have got a database of tags and where they occur and roughly what time they occur. One thing we can do is try and track what parts of town they come from.

"For example, you usually get tags on one estate, then if you see them on a route into town you have got a rough idea it is from somebody on that estate.

"We also share these graffiti tags with schools - if it is kids doing the graffiti they are likely to write them all over their exercise books too.

"We also share the tags with all our partners. We have council workers and other people out and about and when they spot these tags we can roughly narrow down a time of when these tags have appeared and that gives us chance to check CCTV.

"It is not a massive problem in Shrewsbury but we have had some success where we have stop searched people and they have had the offending pens and paint in their bags."

Sergeant Coles said the graffiti would have to be removed, incurring a cost, as leaving it there would attract similar tags.

He said: "Somebody has got to clean this off and that incurs a cost. To my mind it is vandalism.

"Some call it art but it is hardly Banksy and it is just some squiggles. There is a time and place and I don't think that is up the side of a telephone box.

"If you let it remain it attracts more vandalism.

"Somebody will have to spend time and money clearing it off and it is inappropriate. If you want to practice your art, do it somewhere appropriate, not up the side of a wall."

Anyone with any information about the graffiti tags should call 101 and ask to be put through to officers in Shrewsbury. Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111 or at crimestoppers-uk.org