Vandal who scratched and damaged 20 cars in rampage ‘for no reason’ spared jail

A shopper vandalised 23 cars in two separate rampages after becoming abusive when asked to leave a store for ‘scaring customers.’

Kevin Myers, 62, carried out his crimes ‘for no apparent reason’ in the town centre of Warrington, Cheshire, in February 2024.

Three weeks before his car-damaging spree, Myers became abusive towards shop-owner Waqar Qayyaaum after being asked to leave his store for ‘scaring customers’.

Myers proceeded to damage the doorhandle of a BMW owned by Mr Qayyaum that was parked outside of the shop.

And three weeks later, he decided to vandalise 22 more vehicles with a sharp instrument for no known reason.

Among the cars targeted were a Jaguar XF, an Audi Q5 and a 2023 MG4 Trophy.

Back in March, Myers, who has bipolar disorder, was sentenced to three weeks in jail for damage caused to three of the vehicles.

But this week he appeared before JPs over the remaining vehicles and was spared a further stretch inside.

As he walked free from Warrington Magistrates’ Court, he told staff: ‘Merry Christmas. I won’t be seeing you again.’

Robert Earl, prosecuting, said: ‘Last January 23, the defendant went into a shop, became irate and started scaring the shop’s customers.

‘The shopkeeper has asked him to leave. He has then become verbally abusive and aggressive and has gone outside the shop and attacked the victim’s car, a BMW.

‘He has grabbed the passenger door handle and is described as dragging the door handle and causing damage.’

Mr Earl noted that the vandalisation of the BMW was the only vehicle damaged by Myers for which there could have been a motive.

He said: ‘This is the only offence where he has deliberately targeted a person’s car. All the rest are basically randomly damaging the vehicles for reasons best known to himself.

‘On February 12, there are five of those. On that occasion he was going around Densham Avenue and scratching vehicles with a sharp instrument. Members of the public recorded him and he has been caught on CCTV.

‘He was basically going around and damaging those vehicles by scraping them with some sort of instrument.

‘Similarly with the other guilty pleas, he has been going around scratching and damaging cars with some sort of instrument, again for no reason we can ascertain, apart from wanting to cause damage. We do not have the total value of the damage.

‘He has offended so often, offended against so many different people, 20 victims, who have had their cars damaged, putting the victims through the inconvenience of fixing them, and he just carries on offending.

‘I am trying to think of a less emotive word than rampage but that is effectively what it was, destroying vehicles for no apparent reason. It is incomprehensible to me but it is not my job to comprehend.’

Myers was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison suspended for six months and ordered to pay £154 to Mr Qayyaum after he pleaded guilty to criminal damage.

He sad previous convictions from 2017 for breaching an exclusion order and possession of a bladed article.

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