Across the region, business owners and residents are frustrated and angry that mindless youths are repeatedly vandalising property and getting away with it.

Repeated attacks prompted Mr Mealey to release his CCTV footage of the vandals in action.

The footage is on our website, and photos from it have been reproduced in today's paper.

The disturbing thing about the footage is how nonchalant the culprits appear. They casually walk up to the roller shutter, spray it quickly and walk away.

They almost appear bored. Where's the thrill in that?

And yet, in just a few seconds, they deface someone else's property, creating another expensive mess to clean up.

Some will say that we are simply playing into the vandals' hands by publicising their graffiti.

Perhaps we are. But the truth is these hoons already get street cred from their peers, regardless of whether we publicise their work.

And by keeping the issue at the forefront for our readers, we hope we can stimulate debate and action.

We need everyone, including young people, police, politicians and parents, to participate in finding a solution to this insidious social problem.