A RAGING resident has been sentenced by the courts after ‘keying’ 17 cars across the town centre on multiple days.

Some of the cars damaged by Kevin Myers, believed to be with a shard of glass, were new, with the vandalism spree occurring on three separate dates.

The 61-year-old appeared before Warrington Magistrates’ Court recently to be sentenced for 18 charges of criminal damage.

But he was allowed to walk free from court after being slapped with a suspended jail term with no community requirements, such as unpaid work.

Prosecutor Robert Earl explained how one of the incidents was a targeted attack on the door handle of a BMW belonging to a Warrington town centre store manager on January 23 this year.

The following criminal damage incidents on February 12 and 18 were all committed on 17 random cars Myers came across, belonging to people he did not know.

He was recorded by members of the public committing the acts and was also caught on CCTV.

The makes of vehicles damaged include BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, MG, Volvo, Toyota, Nissan, Ford, Kia and Audi.

It is not known how much financial damage he caused, with no values attached to most of the charges, and the motivation for the damage also remains unclear.

Magistrates remarked that the offences combined are so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified.

This takes into account the course of offending, value of damage caused and his criminal record, which includes previous damage offences.

However, as he is now engaging with the Probation Service and has stabilised his mental health, he was not sent to prison immediately.

Myers, of Laira Street in Orford, was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison, but this was suspended for the next 12 months.