THE jailing of a prolific graffiti vandal who blighted walls across Oxford has been hailed as a “milestone sentence”.

Vandal Charlie Silver, known for his distinctive Soak” tag, was jailed for 10 weeks after admitting eight counts of criminal damage across the city centre and north Oxford costing an estimated £1,610.

It marks the first jail sentence for graffiti vandalism in the city, despite the conviction not adding any time to Silver’s 28-months in prison for drug dealing.

Neighbourhood inspector Andy Thompson said the jail term sent out a strong message to vandals that they won’t just get a slap on the wrist for damaging property.

The inspector, who has covered the city centre and north Oxford beat for eight years, added: “It is a milestone for us.

“Within the community there is immense frustration when it’s cleaned off and re-appears.

“It’s really good to see the courts have seen the impact this is having on the community and residents of Oxford.

“It shows people who look to unlawfully graffiti other people’s property that the risk of their behaviour could be imprisonment.

“They know they won’t just get a slap on the wrist.”

Silver, 24 of no fixed abode, was arrested with a rucksack full of marker pens, paint and spray paint in November, as well as pieces of paper with his trademark ‘Soak’ tag.

However, it took officers months to link him to the eight instances of criminal damage across the city, using a graffiti expert to study the tag and then gather evidence to show they were painted by the same artist.

Insp Thompson said: “Graffiti was very difficult to investigate – we were reliant on catching the person doing the graffiti and when we prosecuted we could only proceed on that one count.

“But now there are various investigation techniques we can use to link them so if we find a person doing one tag we can link them to others. For years any conviction would be minimal, victims would not see any compensation for the damage.”

He said that as well as trying to deter vandals from ruining walls, post boxes and lamp posts with graffiti, officers are working with graffiti artists to try to understand what drives them to do it.

Insp Thompson added: “We are meeting ex-graffiti offenders to try to understand, one, why they do it, and two, to work with them to see how we can divert them from doing graffiti on people’s property.”

One idea is to set up a wall where graffiti artists can practise their designs without fear of prosecution, which has been done in Bristol and Brighton.

Insp Thompson added: “It’s early days, we are carrying out the research with Bristol and getting feedback from places that have it.

“Some of these people are very talented artists. They would much rather spend a decent amount of time doing a good piece of art on a wall rather than five seconds doing a tag.”

St Margaret’s city councillor Elizabeth Wade said bridges in North Oxford were regularly vandalised, with graffiti one of the biggest concerns of people living in the area.

She said residents had been out to hold volunteer clean-up parties several times, but bridges in Aristotle Lane and Walton Well Road were repeatedly defaced. Mrs Wade added: “Sometimes it has hardly been 48 hours before there is something new scrawled over it.”

Oxford City Council’s executive director for community services Tim Sadler said: “The council welcomes the successful prosecution and sentencing of Charlie Silver.

“We hope this serves as a strong deterrent to others who may be engaging in similar acts of vandalism.

“The council is determined to stamp out this practice and apart from prosecuting offenders, we will also pursue civil proceedings against them to reclaim the cost of removing graffiti.”