POLICE have charged a 46-year-old man with 135 counts of criminal damage over a spate of vandalism crimes in which expensive, high-performance cars were damaged.

Dozens of luxury cars, including that of Perth Glory owner Tony Sage, high-profile lawyers and real estate agents, have been damaged using a solvent to strip paint from the vehicles across the metropolitan area over several months.

Mirrabooka detectives arrested Gilles Gaudet, 46, at his Morley home yesterday morning.

Mr Gaudet is a team leader for policy and legislation at WA's Department of Corrective Services and will appear in court on November 8 to face the 135 charges.

It is understood expensive cars, including a Lamborghini, Porsche, BMWs and Mercedes, were hit in the vandalism spree, most of which were damaged around Mt Lawley.

A Department of Corrective Services spokesman said yesterday: "It is not appropriate for the Department of Corrective Services to comment on alleged offences currently under investigation by the WA Police or before the court. Further, the offences are alleged to have taken place during the employee’s private time".

Mr Sage told PerthNow he had parked his Mercedes AMG 63 sports car in a car park on Beaufort St, Mt Lawley in June when he went to a friend's birthday party at the Malt Supper Club about 9pm.

"I thought it was in a safe position because it's heavily lit. It don't like leaving my car anywhere but I thought Mt Lawley was a good suburb,'' Mr Sage said.

"Since then, it's affected my habits, I've never been back to Mt Lawley. Why would you go there when you could become a victim?

"Everyone thinks just rich people have been targeted but in the end everyone pays because the insurance companies claim it back and everyone pays out in higher insurance premiums.

"Like with graffiti, people can say: `It's not my wall, I'm not worried about it', but that costs the community.''

Mr Sage said it cost almost $10,000 to repair the damage to his car's rear and side panels and his boot.

For legal reasons, comments cannot be published on this matter.