Two of the vandals were arrested at Stansted Airport while trying to return home
Four Spaniards who flew into the UK to graffiti London Underground trains have been fined. Asier Dorado-Alosete, 21, Javier Martinez-Lopez, 30, Juan Palomino Andres-Cabanas, 22, and Galo Adrian Romero-Valle, 21 were caught trespassing on live railway lines in High Barnet during the early hours of Wednesday, July 8.
Upon arrival the group began spray painting large murals across the side of a Northern line train. These actions were quickly spotted by Transport for London staff observing CCTV who contacted the police.
Officers searched the area and quickly found Romero-Valle and Andres-Cabanas nearby who had fled the scene. Unable to explain why they were there, they were arrested and their phones seized for evidence.
British Transport Police (BTP) officers also found several bags containing 44 aerosol spray cans in the bushes while the two other men, Dorado-Alosete and Martinez-Lopez, remained hidden. The two arrested men admitted their offences and were charged with criminal damage, trespass and having articles to cause damage.
They appeared at North London Magistrates’ Court the following day. While the pair were in court, further evidence downloaded from their phones revealed the group had been involved in a separate incident of criminal damage to a train in Amersham the same night.
This same downloaded data also alerted police to the timing of Martinez-Lopez and Dorado-Alosete’s flights out of the country on July. Officers attended Stansted Airport and arrested the remaining pair while they waited to board their flight home.
At Highbury Magistrates’ Court on Saturday, July 11 the four men were handed five-year criminal behaviour orders and fined £187, while Romero-Valle and Andres-Cabanas were additionally ordered to pay £972 in compensation to Transport for London.
Martinez-Lopez and Romero-Valle were additionally sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 24 months, while Dorado-Alosete and Andres-Cabanas were sentenced to 10 months, suspended for 12 months.
Analysed data also revealed that Romero-Valle had a child sex abuse image on his phone. He was charged with making an indecent image of a child in Category A and later pleaded guilty.
BTP Sergeant Phil Osafo said: “This was an amazing effort by so many people at BTP to quickly attend the location and arrest those involved, and to later arrest the other two men before they could fly home. While these offences may seem relatively low-level, there is high cost involved to train operating companies who have to carry out repairs costing thousands of pounds. It also causes disruption across the rail network as trains are taken out of service to be cleaned.
“The conduct of these men was also incredibly ill-thought out as stepping on the tracks is extremely dangerous. The railway is an unforgiving environment to trespass on and our officers as first responders have sadly seen the horrific consequences of doing so. Anyone who witnesses anyone committing criminal damage on the railway network to get in touch with BTP by texting 61016 so we can robustly deal with offenders.”
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