Just two of the 20 graffiti and tagging related complaints referred to Police by the Tauranga City Council in the year to April resulted in the offenders being convicted and sentenced.

Both offenders were charged with wilful damage and received fines of $150 and $200 respectively.

Under the Summary Offences Act (section 11), “wilful damage” can incur a maximum penalty of three months prison or a fine of up to $2000.

The cases were part of a Police table of information on graffiti and tagging released last week to The Weekend Sun under the Official Information Act.

Two further accused were convicted and discharged on charges of possessing graffiti implements. This means the conviction was considered sufficient penalty in itself.

Two other complaints were dealt with by way of discharge, which means the accused does not have a criminal conviction.

No police charges were brought in 10 of the 22 graffiti and tagging complaints forwarded to Police by the Tauranga City Council.

The OIA request was filed by The Weekend Sun after a recent page 2 opinion piece on the growing amount of graffiti and tagging around Tauranga. “Look around the city,” it said. “If you see one tag, you start seeing them everywhere. A worsening problem for all of us – because it’s in our faces. We see our city being disfigured, defaced, mutilated.”

This prompted a Weekend Sun reader to call for “police action…against offenders” and suggested “graffiti vandals” be turned into “graffiti removal practitioners”.

At the time of the opinion piece, Brendan Bisley, who manages the Tauranga City Council contract for graffiti removal services, agreed the problem is a “worsening” one. However when The Sun referred the police statistics to TCC and asked if the council is happy with the level of enforcement, it declined to comment.

Earlier, TCC, which has a budget of $180,000 a year to clean off, or paint out, graffiti, said the problem “required a strong community response”.

It said the best way people can take action against tagging is by cleaning it off as soon as possible. If people see graffiti that is racist or contains bad language they should call the council and if they see vandalism taking place, call the Police.

The table of police information released to The Weekend Sun says four offenders were referred to Youth Aid to help them “go in the right direction”.

On two occasions, wilful damage charges were dismissed on completion of diversion – a scheme allowing first time-offenders to take responsibility for their actions and avoid criminal conviction.

Both did community work and one paid $380 in reparations.

There were “no further lines of inquiry” with seven of the 22 complaints inquiries. And in one instance, an “investigation is pending”.

The 22 graffiti and tagging files linked to Tauranga City Council have either been reported by TCC itself following CCTV discoveries, or has happened  on or at council property and reported by contractors, passers-by or neighbours. In each of the 22 files, Tauranga City Council is recorded as “the victim”.