VANDAL Darren Bill has been jailed for six months for

causing £15,000 worth of damage to a council's headquarters and

then posting a video of the paint attack on the internet.

Jobless Bill, aged 37, of Ashnell Road, Hartshill, was

remorseless as Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court was shown the video

of the attack on the night of May 12.

He told the court he had hurled paint at Stoke-on-Trent City

Council's main offices at the Civic Centre, in Stoke, in

protest at a £1,200 council tax bill and then posted the

results on internet site YouTube, fully expecting to be

caught.

Prosecutor Paul Spratt told the court: "Shortly after

midnight, the defendant and two others attended the council

offices.

"They had armed themselves with pots of paint and a mobile

phone, with which they proposed to film their activities.

"The plan was Bill would throw the paint. He did that and

his actions were filmed.

"A certain amount of paint was splattered on the wall quite

high, about 30ft off the ground.

"The film was then uploaded on to the computer. The council

at that stage were aware of the damage but no one had been

identified."

Mr Spratt said the city council had been left with a

cleaning bill of £15,200, which would have to be funded at

taxpayers' expense because building insurance wouldn't cover

that type of damage.

The short YouTube film, entitled Stoke-on-Trent City Council

Painted Up! shows Bill, a youth and another man, walking over

Glebe Bridge towards the brightly lit council offices with the

paint.

At one point the cameraman turns the camera round to show

close-ups of all three grinning faces and says, "naughty,

naughty, naughty".

It then shows Bill and the youth throwing paint over the

building from Copeland Street.

The film was seen on YouTube by a council employee, and

police were informed, who then arrested Bill.

Watch the video here(Caution this video contains

swearing which may offend)

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Mr Spratt told the court: "The defendant admitted it and

said, 'I expected you were coming'."

Defending Bill, solicitor Guy Mathieson told the court: "It

is difficult to mitigate, because this crime is fully

justified, in Bill's view.

"He went to the council when he got into financial

difficulty, he felt they were unwilling to help him.

"On top of that, he received a council tax bill for £1,200,

which he felt was adding insult to injury. That's why this

protest took place.

"He posted it on the internet to publicise it and made no

attempt to cover his identity."

Sentencing Bill, Deputy Circuit Judge Peter Stretton said:

"You have caused a considerable amount of damage that will have

to be paid for by those who do pay their taxes."