A receptionist who daubed race-hate slurs on an east London mosque during a seven-month campaign of vandalism is facing jail.

Tom Whelan, 53, repeatedly scrawled insulting slogans including “deport Islam”, “bleed the pigs”, “nation destroyer”, “Islam evil” and “Allah myth” on wooden hoardings surrounding the Noor Ul Islam centre in High Road, Leyton.

He started the campaign in August last year, making nine trips to the Islamic centre until he was caught this February. He told Thames magistrates the vandalism was just a way of getting his political views “off his chest”.

Whelan now faces the sack from his job as a front desk clerk at a leading London property firm after pleading guilty to nine counts of religiously or racially aggravated criminal damage, and could be jailed when he is sentenced later this month. “He walks up to the hoarding, removes a black marker and then writes the words with these racially or religiously aggravated connotations in relation to Islam and Arabs,” said prosecutor Alexa Morgan. “The defendant was arrested because he was captured on CCTV writing graffiti on the hoarding.”

Aslam Hansa, the operations manager of the Noor Ul Islam Trust which runs a mosque, pre-school, and nursery, said they feared violent attacks when the vandalism started.

“We fully appreciate other issues around the world that could inflame tensions and we didn’t want people to start using this area to vent their anger,” he said. “What started as a few words on the hoardings could have then become something more.”

Mr Hansa said the centre, which has been in Leyton for 25 years, has good ties with the local community, and becoming the target of abuse was unexpected.

“We have not experienced any animosity, everyone seems to get on really well, so anything like that is going to raise a few eyebrows,” he said. “The concern was that this would escalate but fortunately it didn’t, there was nothing brewing in the background, and it seemed to be just one guy venting his frustrations.”

Niall Hearty, defending, said Whelan, who lives in Wesley Road, Waltham Forest, has no previous convictions and had been acting “out of character”.

“He has found himself in court on these offences which he himself describes as quite wrong,” he said. “He realises he would have caused hurt in the community and apologises fully in his police interview for his actions.

“These were his own personal views he wanted to get off his chest — political views rather than seeking intentionally to cause hatred in his local society.”

Whelan, who has been banned from going near the mosque or carrying a marker pen or spray paint in public, will be sentenced on April 13.