A TEENAGE graffiti scourge who caused more than £7,500 of damage across Worcester will have to clean it off as part of his punishment.

Peter Carran admitted causing £7,552 of criminal damage when he appeared at Worcester Magistrates Court on Thursday.

The 19-year-old admitted five charges of criminal damage between January 1 last year and April 30 this year. Some of his graffiti had to cleaned off by an environmental charity.

He caused £3,685 to Worcester City Council property, £300 to BT property, £527 to Nathan Strefford garage, £1,000 to the a barber shop in Cypress Street and £1,000 to Worcester Racecourse. The Duckworth Worcestershire Trust was also faced with a bill of £1,040 for clean up costs after Carran covered the centre of Worcester in tags including 'skeng', 'smoke', 'levels' and 'redrum'.

There was a delay in arresting Carran as he dodged police, moving from his mother's address in Sunnyside Road, Barbourne, to York Street, Barton Hill, Bristol.

Dressed in a dark suit and tie, Carran hung his head throughout the court hearing.

Kriss Ewing, prosecuting, said Carran had left his tags using spray paint and marker pens on buildings, bus shelters and junction boxes.

Ms Ewing said: “Mr Carran was in Bristol at the time he was arrested. It seems he was aware officers wanted to speak to him when he went down to live in Bristol.”

She stressed that these were specimen charges relating only to those tags which could be attributed to Carran. Carran had no previous convictions.

"An aggravating feature is the length of time it was going on for and it's greater harm in that it was damage to amenities" Ms Ewing told the court.

Sarah Brady, defending, Carran did poorly at school, gaining just one GCSE and was diagnosed with ADHD.

However, she said he was artistic and creative and became involved in the skateboarding scene where graffiti was 'part of the culture'.

Mrs Brady said: "He was younger when this started. He's older and wiser now. He had started to drink and dabble in drugs, nothing too serious. He's now sought help for that from his GP. He bitterly regrets the whole thing. He's embarrassed a charity became involved in the clean up."

Richard Poppleton, chairman of the bench, said: "This was sustained damage over a long period of time. Spree isn't quite the word. Your response is to refer to this being totally out of character but for 18 months it was your character to do this. You can't say this was an aberration."

Carran was ordered to pay compensation for the full amount of the damage and handed a 12 week prison suspended for 12 months (concurrent on all charges).

He must complete 150 hours of unpaid work as part of a community order, some of which will involve cleaning off graffiti in Worcester.

Unemployed Carran will move back to Worcester so he can complete the unpaid work under the supervision of local probation officers. He must also pay £135 court costs.

Sgt Pete Frankish said after the hearing: "He was elusive and his family frustrated police attempts to locate and arrest him for the offences he had committed.

"The commitment of officers in gathering evidence and resolving this enquiry was first class, an excellent file of evidence was completed and the weight of evidence against Carran was overwhelming and gave him no opportunity, when finally located and arrested in Bristol, but to plead guilty."