THE hunt is on for two prolific vandals who are spraying hundreds of ugly graffiti tags across Worcester.

Police say the culprits face a possible prison sentence when caught and have vowed to make them scrub the unsightly graffiti off themselves.

Hundreds of the tags have appeared across the city in locations including the Shambles, New Street, Broad Street, Sansome Walk, Pheasant Street, Lowesmoor, City Walls Road, Shaw Street and Farrier Street.

The offenders have vandalised the probation office and old job centre and also left their mark on 214 Battery (Royal Artillery) Dancox House, in Pheasant Street, at 2.02am on Sunday, December 18.

The vandalism has been going on for around 12 to 18 months but police say over the last three months it has increased.

Officers leading the investigation are now calling on the public to identify the culprits, who are causing damage which it is estimated will cost thousands to clean up.

Sgt Pete Frankish said: "Worcester is a nice place to live. These people are targeting shops, houses, buildings and road signs and indiscriminately marking their tag on all of Worcester.

"I would make it a public event as we get them to clean it up or repaint it. That would send a message out."

Police say two distinctive tags are particularly prominent in the vandalism and believe one belongs to each of the two offenders.

The first is 'ASPER' and the second is 'SARK' with the 'k' written in a very distinctive way.

The two tags appear together and police believe the offenders are moving around Worcester on foot and using either a spray can or a felt tip pen to mark buildings and signs.

Police are already pursuing several lines of enquiry and have released CCTV and descriptions of the two suspects to the Worcester News.

The CCTV footage, which police admit is not of good quality, shows the two males who may be in their late teens or early 20s.

One is described as 5ft 11ins tall and was spotted wearing black jeans and a black hoodie which was white inside.

He was carrying a camouflage daysack, white trainers and, unusually (considering the image was taken at night) sunglasses.

The second suspect is described as 5ft 8ins. He was spotted wearing a black jacket, black jeans and black footwear.

Sgt Frankish wants to hear from anyone with information and particularly shop managers or owners who can provide CCTV footage showing the suspects as police continue to build a case.

He said: "We're talking thousands of pounds of damage in clean up charges and repainting and all the man hours it would take to put things right.

"I live in Worcester myself. My children are growing up here. I have a young family. We come into town to use restaurants and cafes and this is an eyesore.

"I feel quite responsible for Worcester as a whole and we get a lot of people coming in to the city from all over the country at times like the Christmas Fayre.

"This is a blight on Worcester as far as I'm concerned. This has been going on for months. These tags are all over the place. They're very prolific. It brings the image of the city down.

"I would like them to have some integrity and come forward and admit to what they're doing.

"I would also like to understand why they're doing it, what they're getting out of it."

Upon conviction for criminal damage, courts can impose a six-month prison sentence if the damage is under £5,000 and up to 10 years if the damage is over £5,000, as well as heavy fines.

Anyone with information should call 101 and ask to speak to PC Katie Miller or Sgt Pete Frankish, quoting incident reference 22CA/104119X/16.