'Snot tagger' gets suspended prison sentence for one-word graffiti spree through Ely, Cambridgeshire

A graffiti vandal caused £12,000 worth of damage by spraying the word "snot" 57 times around a market town.

Samuel Buttery was captured on CCTV as he marked lamp posts, bins, road signs, bus stops and trees with the same tag.

Dubbed the "snot tagger" by police, the 25-year-old was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered to pay more than £3,000 in compensation and carry out 150 hours of unpaid work during a hearing at Cambridge Magistrates' Court.

He had pleaded guilty to 14 counts of criminal damage related to the vandalising spree across Ely, in Cambridgeshire.

Buttery, of New Barns Avenue in Ely, was first spotted by a street cleaner spraying a roadside cabinet on Newnham Street and a bin on Market Street just before 7am on June 6.

When police patrolled the area, they soon found around 57 "snot tags" around the town.

As officers photographed the evidence a week later, they spotted Buttery and arrested him, before finding graffiti pens and drawings at his home.

PC Jamie Brown, from Cambridgeshire Police, said it had cost more than £12,000 to clean up the paint.

"Buttery has plagued the city with unsightly graffiti, making the area look run down and dirty," he added.

“In some cases the graffiti never gets removed and remains a blemish on the area."

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