More than �500,000 is being spent on cleaning Metro graffiti

Mike Parker, director general of Nexus, which operates the Tyne and Wear Metro system, wants the government to sanction stiffer sentence for those found guilty.

Mr Parker says more than �500,000 of public money will be spent on cleaning up Metro stations and track sides in 2003.

And he says that figure will rise in 2004 because of the growing problem.

Mr Parker called on the Home Office to introduce clean up targets for UK police forces in an effort to reduce the fear graffiti instils in the travelling public - particularly the elderly.

'Police targets'

Mr Parker said: "Sadly this is not a priority for the Home Office.

"And yet the effect on fear of crime is so enormous that I really wish they would give the police targets to reduce graffiti and to catch graffiti criminals.

"Our Metro team has been quite successful and we have one or two vandals who are service prison terms of about three months."

Mr Parker also called for restrictions on the sale of spray paint to people under 18.

He added: "There is no doubt that an anti-social environment creates fear and results in fewer people travelling.

"We think that the threat of prison would be a definite deterrent to graffiti vandals."