FOUR young graffiti artists were given a punishment that fitted the crime - when they were made to clean up the tunnel they defaced.

Rather than drag the 15-year-olds through the courts system, PC Ray Milligan, a neighbourhood police officer in York, spoke to the teenagers' parents and decided the best punishment would be to make them scrub off their handiwork.

Rather than just clean up their own graffiti, PC Milligan thought it would be best if they cleaned as much of the pedestrian tunnel at the bottom of Navigation Road as they could.

PC Milligan said: "They are decent kids at the end of the day - they are not kids we would normally be dealing with on a day-to-day basis.

"Hopefully it will teach them a lesson, and it avoids criminalising them when we don't have to."

The four teenagers, whose identities have not been revealed, were caught in the act by an undercover police officer who was involved in a different operation.

Their details and information of their crime were passed to PC Milligan, who went to the tunnel to take photographs of the graffiti as evidence.

While there, the four teenagers appeared of their own volition, with scrubbing brushes, to clean up the mess.

But rather than risk damaging the brickwork, PC Milligan suggested he speak to the council and obtain the proper equipment for them.

One of the youngsters said: "I don't think I'll ever do it again. It's hard getting it off."

Another said: "It would probably stop me from doing it again."