'Serious prison time' for tagging spree, warns judge

A teenager is facing a lengthy prison term after blanketing Tauranga with graffiti. File photo / Bay of Plenty Times

A prolific tagger who hit 22 sites in one night has been told he is likely to face one month in prison for each graffiti offence.

Geoffrey Martin, 19, should also expect more jail time for a breach of release conditions when he is sentenced in March, the Tauranga District Court was told.

Martin, who in October admitted 22 charges of intentional damage and was remanded in custody, had expected to be sentenced this month. But in the Tauranga District Court, Judge Thomas Ingram noted no pleas had been formally entered nor had a pre-sentence report been obtained.

Martin's lawyer, Rebekah Webby, said her client wished to confirm his guilty pleas to all charges and waived his right to a pre-sentence report. She said Martin wanted to start his sentence.

But when Judge Ingram said Martin needed to understand he would be doing serious prison time for his offending, Ms Webby told the judge that in the interest of justice it was better to get a pre-sentence report. The judge agreed to adjourn sentencing until March 4.

Martin had earlier admitted an early morning tagging spree on fences, a bus stop, eight lampposts, three power boxes and buildings, including a church.

Judge Paul Geoghegan last month described his tagging as "mindless, pathetic scrawl" akin to "a dog relieving itself" on a post.

According to the summary of facts, overnight between September 3 and 4 Martin and his alleged associate, a 16-year-old student from Merivale, went on a tagging spree resulting in a $3925 clean-up bill.

The pair, carrying silver and black spray paint, walked from Merivale to the back of Greerton and down across Windermere to Poike, over to the Welcome Bay roundabout and down through Hairini, across Turret Rd bridge and up 15th Ave, spraying four distinctive tags on several places.

The tags ranged from being several letters up a power pole to tags three to four metres long and 1.5m high.

At the intersection of 15th Ave and Scantlebury St, the pair were seen by a member of the public who called police.

* Geoffrey Martin's trail of destruction:

Greerton Bible Church (building).
ALTEC Coatings (a fence).
Tennix Power (three power boxes).
Palmer's Garden Centre (a fence).
Welcome Bay physiotherapist (building).
Bridgeway Motel (fence).
Turret Rd (phone box).
Creative Heating (signs).
15th Ave and Burrows St (buildings).
Trellis and Ply (building).
Hairini St, Poike Rd and Turret Rd (residents' fences).
Tauranga City Council (eight lampposts, a bus stop, an iron fence bordering Ila Park, and a water treatment station building).