Dpm get sentenced....

GANG OF EIGHT “UNTOUCHABLES” SENTENCED FOR GRAFFITI CONSPIRACY


Eight graffiti vandals have been sentenced today to one of the largest graffiti conspiracies to be brought to trial.

The group, collectively known as the DPM crew, targeted trains and railway infrastructure across England from 2004 until their arrest in 2006. Their crimes cost the rail industry at least £600,000.

The eight pleaded guilty in Southwark Crown Court to conspiracy to commit criminal damage, following a major graffiti investigation by British Transport Police codenamed Operation Shuttle.

They were today handed sentences ranging from suspended jail terms and community service to jail terms of up to two years.

In sentencing Judge Christopher Hardy said: "This was a wholesale self-indulgent campaign to damage property on an industrial scale".

He also commended the work of BTP officers attached to the inquiry.

Detective Superintendent Michael Field, who led the inquiry, said the group was responsible for 120 offences across the rail network.

"This group targeted the rail network in a guerilla-type fashion. Often masked and working under the cover of night they would strike at railway depots and sidings across the country to scrawl their crew name.

"As the evidence shows the tags used were pure vandalism. There is nothing artistic in what this group engaged in.

"They sought only to gain some sort of kudos by branding trains, station walls and platforms with the name of their so-called crew. They thought they were untouchable. Frankly, some of their scrawlings could best be described as school pupils having to re-write lines on a chalk board for detention or other punishment.

"Now the courts have handed them a different type of sentence and hopefully these vandals and others that seek to gain notoriety through such activity may be forced to rethink their actions."

Most of the DPM crew's activities were concentrated in south London. Areas targeted included Grove Park, Orpington and Croydon Tramlink depots and Dartford sidings. However, they also committed crimes in Liverpool, Manchester and Sunderland, as well as in Amsterdam, the Czech Republic and Paris.

Most of the men were arrested in June 2006 and charges were laid in October and November that year. Operation Shuttle took British Transport Police more than seven months to complete.

Four of the men were caught red handed as a result of a covert surveillance operation.

The prime mover in the DPM crew was Andrew Gillman, who today received the longest jail term of two years for his crimes. Just before Christmas 2007, whilst on bail, he took a casual job under a false name with the BBC. As part of his job, with the Art Department for Eastenders, he helped decorate the outdoor set at Elstree studios tagging it with "NEAS", "DPM" and references to "MOODY" (believed to be graffiti writer James Dutka, who was known as "MOODY" and died in 2002).

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taken from the BTP site..
its harsh i know, but for the considerable amounts neas did 2 years aint that bad!

anyone else hear the rumours of how he was likely to get 10 years?