London vandal claimed his graffiti was ‘creating a job for the person cleaning it’

A vandal claimed the £130,000 worth of damage caused by the graffiti he scrawled on trains and at stations in London was “creating a job for the person cleaning it.”

Bacari Adams, 33, admitted being caught red-handed when he was shown footage of him writing his favourite tag on a London Overground train in January 2019 – the same tag was tattooed across his knuckles.

He said during an interview with police: “Sorry, I’m not going to do it again, I can’t deny catching me red-handed, only an idiot would deny that”.

It was just one of dozens of offences.

Adams, of Sandcroft Close in Southgate, Enfield, was jailed for six months at Inner London Crown Court on Wednesday 13 October. He pleaded guilty to conspiring to destroy or damage property.

His jailing was the cumulation of a long-term investigation into graffiti vandalism on the London railway network which began in 2016.

British Transport Police officers invested significant time investigating accounts of suspects trespassing onto the railway, sometimes in the dead of night, and scrawling tags on trains and other property.

They built enough evidence against Adams to link him with 77 offences, all committed across the railway in London.

A second man, Jake Martin, 31, was also tied to the same offences.

Martin, of Fenton Road in Tottenham, London, was tried at the same time as Adams and pleaded guilty to the same offence. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison suspended for 18 months in December 2020.

The damage caused to the railway totalled to £133,817.

Both men were arrested at their homes in December 2018. Their phones included decisive evidence, including pictures of their vandalism which they had kept as trophies.

The phones also included text and WhatsApp messages they sent to each other as they planned more vandalism on trains and railway property.

The officer leading the case, Alom Uddin, said: “This was a long and thorough investigation. We were committed to securing enough evidence to link Adams and Martin to the dozens of crimes committed across the London railway network.

“Graffiti on the railway is inherently dangerous. It often involves trespassing onto the railway lines, which can be charged with electricity, or have trains constantly passing though. It also costs the railway network significant sums of money and disrupts services while carriages are cleaned.

“We’re committed to identifying anyone committing these acts on the railway and will invest significant resources and time to ensure they’re brought before the courts.”