Police have raided the home of a 13-year-old suspected of covering the town in graffiti.

The alleged tagger, who lives with his mum in Gorse Hill, was arrested first thing yesterday morning.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is believed to be behind the tags LV and Scope.

The LV scrawl is all over the street where he lives, including his neighbour's front door, his own house and garden shed and on his other next-door neighbour's front and side walls.

The garages of numerous other residents have also been vandalised with the initials along with road signs, electricity boxes and a hairdressers nearby.

Police seized spray cans, pictures of the tags and other evidence from his bedroom.

Insp Adrian Burt, of Swindon police, said: "We are determined to stamp out graffiti in Swindon and we would encourage anyone who has any inform-ation to report it to the police or the Adver's graffiti hotline.

"We will not tolerate graffiti in Swindon. It has a considerable impact on the community and the lives of residents."

Residents of Beatrice Street came out of their houses to see what was going on as police searched the house and many, such as 68-year-old Cyril Jones, said that the graffiti was getting out of hand. "We believe that the individual is responsible for graffiti in a number of areas of Swindon," Insp Burt said.

"The tags are not confined to the Gorse Hill area and they have blighted many neighbourhoods across town."

The boy's schoolbooks were also covered in the tag and a chest of drawers in his bedroom had been etched with LV.

"We would encourage parents to be vigilant and if they are aware of their children having spray cans or paintings or drawings of graffiti tags in the house we would encourage them to contact us," Insp Burt said.

"This person is 13 and we would appeal to shopkeepers and suppliers of aerosol paint not to sell them to people under age."

LV is one of the tags the council identified as being among the six most prolific in the town.

Cheri Wright, the council's anti-social behaviour officer, said that the council's scheme to offer £100 rewards for convictions of the six worst graffiti artists was already bearing fruit.

"This is a demonstration of the fact that this works and we need to continue the supply of information because this is enabling us to get warrants and start looking at arrests."