By Dave Lord

A GRAFFITI artist who travelled more than 250 miles to “tag” trains at Perth railway station was jailed yesterday.

Dudley Halls, from Manchester, was previously found guilty of spray-painting several carriages on a train at the station on June 12, 2005.

At Perth Sheriff Court the 29-year-old, who has similar previous convictions, was sent to prison for two months.

Tagging trains is seen as a prestigious art form by many graffiti aficionados—but for Perth commuters it caused nothing more than frustration as the train in question had to be removed from the tracks and cleared up.

Several websites display the “daring” yet highly illegal work of tag artists and Perth Sheriff Court heard how Halls was a fan of such sites.

A camera dumped near to Perth railway station shortly after detection of the crime was found to contain several pictures of the graffiti.

A facemask also recovered near the site contained traces of the accused’s DNA.

The train daubed by Halls was to be used on the busy early Monday morning run from Perth to Edinburgh but had to be cancelled as the paint was removed.

No indication was given of how many commuters were affected or of the revenue lost to ScotRail as a result.

However, the court was told that the train cost £1150 to clean-up.

Halls, a self-employed distributor of arts-related materials including spray paint cans, had denied maliciously damaging carriages by painting them while acting alongside others.

During a lengthy trial Halls insisted he had merely been undertaking a “sight- seeing” tour of Scotland with foreign friends and was effectively guilty of no more than being in the wrong place at the time.

However, Sheriff McCreadie branded the accused’s evidence “quite unbelievable.”

Halls has said he was at Perth skate park on the night in question and had been subsequently apprehended by police “for no reason.”

The accused claimed he wore a facemask as he watched graffiti artists at the skate park.

“I was interested in what they were doing...and asked to borrow a mask because the fumes from the paint were quite bad,” he said.

Halls said he had not moved from the skate park for several hours and was making his way back to his car to meet one of his friends when he was stopped by police officers.

Depute fiscal John Malpass said a black rucksack containing bolt cutters, spray cans and a camera was found near Perth railway station

Police searched the area and found Halls less than 100 metres away.

Mr Malpass added that the photos recovered from the camera were evidence of a “trophy” taken at the crime scene by Halls.

Sentencing Halls to two months, Sheriff McCreadie said, “You have a record of criminal damage going back 13 years.

“I am satisfied that, given the wilful damage you caused to the railway carriages, a period of imprisonment is appropriate.”

The sheriff also ordered Halls to pay £1150 in compensation.