The graffiti artist who looks like an accounts manager… because he is! Vandal, 32, defaced famous Bluebell line train in a ‘tedious and depressing’ crime spree

Kristian Holmes, from Sidcup, Kent, went on seven-year spree

Found guilty of 39 offences and remanded in custody ahead of sentence

Grinning graffiti artist Krisitan Holmes, from Sidcup, Kent, is in jail after a seven-year spree of vandalising trains and stations

A graffiti artist who vandalised trains and stations, including the world famous Bluebell steam railway, during a seven-year spree has been put behind bars.

Kristian Holmes, 32, caused £250,000 of damage by scrawling his 'VAMP' tag to trains, walls, and bridges across London and the southeast between 2003 and 2010.

The accounts worker kept an A-Z street guide marked with the locations he had vandalised and his distinctive tag was even found scrawled on a wall in Ibiza.

Holmes was a leading member of the PS crew which forced trains out of services by daubing tags, in-jokes and crude caricatures on carriages at night-time.

He had links to other graffiti vandals including Matthew Mandell, who was just 4ft 3in and used a stepladder to tag trains across London, Hertfordshire and Kent.

Holmes began his 'tedious and depressing' crime spree when he attacked a 63-year-old carriage on the Bluebell Railway - the steam-powered heritage line run by volunteers in Sussex.

He was convicted by a jury of 39 charges of criminal damage after a five week retrial at Blackfriars Crown Court.

Holmes was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice after he made a video showing a mixed race man painting the VAMP tag in a bid to scupper an investigation into the damage.

Judge Deva Pillay remanded him in custody ahead of sentence on May 17.

The first jury had failed to reach verdicts after a six-week trial last July.

Prosecutor James Murray-Smith had said there was a 'welter of circumstantial evidence' linking Holmes to the damage.

'Mr Holmes is a prolific graffiti vandal,' he said.

'We are not talking here about witty imaginative images such as those I expect you are familiar with by Banksy.

'What you make of the graffiti in this case is a matter for you, but I would suggest what you are dealing with is simple damage.

'It is damage which to the vast majority of the public is tedious and depressing.'

Of the Bluebell Railway, he said: 'It is not owned by a large wealth corporation, it is run by volunteers for their pleasure.

'If one of the trains gets damaged, they either have to get together the money to pay for repairs, or do the work themselves.'

Holmes was first caught writing his tag on a wall at Cafe 1001, in Brick Lane, east London, on July 26, 2009.

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Holmes began his spree in 2003, targeting the world-famous Bluebell steam railway in Sussex

He was arrested but claimed he was bending down to look at the graffiti at time.

Holmes was caught with three cans of spray paint in his bag, but was released without charge.

Mr Murray-Smith said British Transport Police officers found a 'bomber bag' - the vandal's term for a rucksack of graffiti equipment - when they aided Holmes' home in Kirkland Close, Sidcup, Kent.

He originally claimed to live in Ellison Road, Sidcup, but when officers raided his real home they found 22 spray can nozzles, Network Rail high visibility jackets and trousers, cameras, and right-hand gloves 'splattered with paint'.

They also found an A-Z atlas with annotations marking places where the VAMP tag had been sprayed, or potential pitfalls to accessing railway lines, the court heard.

Police raided Holmes' employer, RI Building Services in Bromley, and his previous employer Versatile Kent in Orpington when they arrested him, and seized his computers.

When asked in interview about MySpace pages featuring the VAMP tag, he claimed it was just a 'freaky coincidence.'

Holmes had also created a series of YouTube videos with Pang to throw detectives off the scent.

'There was a conspiracy as posting the videos on YouTube was an attempt to mislead police into thinking the author of the tag was mixed race person, not a white person,' Mr Murray-Smith said.

But the jury saw images taken from Holmes' computers which show a white hand making the tag.

Mr Murray-Smith said Holmes was an associate of other prolific graffiti vandals like Mandell, 29, and they kept in touch through MySpace and Facebook.

Mandell, who had Holmes' number stored in his phone under the name 'Kris Vam', was jailed for nine months and given a five year ASBO for criminal damage in 2010.

Holmes, of Kirkland Close, Sidcup, Kent was convicted of 39 counts of criminal damage - 23 attacks on Southeastern Railway trains, eight on Network Rail walls or bridges, two on National Express East Anglia trains and two on East Kent Railway Trust carriages, as well as the scrawls at Cafe 1001, the Bluebell Railway, and on a Barclays Bank wall.