A PINT-SIZED graffiti vandal who targeted four train stations in the area has been jailed.

Matthew Mandell, aged 27, from Mitcham, caused £40,000 worth of damage across 11 boroughs including vandalism at New Cross, Grove Park, Forest Hill and Crystal Palace stations.

The vandal, who stands at just over 130cm tall, was sentenced at Blackfriars Crown Court to nine months in prison today after pleading guilty to criminal damage.

He was also given a five-year anti-social behaviour order (Asbo) banning him from entering any London Underground or railway property which is not open to the general public, and forbidding him from carrying paint, ink, dye or marker pens in public. .

Mandell was arrested on January 14 this year after being linked to spray-paint graffiti damage to a train in Three Bridges, West Sussex, a few days earlier.

Officers noticed a tag inscribed on it and traced it back to Mandell and other locations where it had been daubed between January 2008 and early 2010.

When detectives searched his home they found a number of graffiti items including pieces of paper with the tag sketched on, as well as spray-paint cans, marker pens and photographs of Mandell with other vandals.

Detective Constable Colin Saysell, of British Transport Police's graffiti unit, said: "Vandals like Mandell who commit graffiti offences often believe their work is art.

"Sadly when the chosen canvas is railway property it cannot be considered art and is nothing more than wanton damage that costs thousands of pounds to clean up."