Now, 20-year-old Kevin Saunders will have plenty to do after being sentenced to 80 hours of community service that will involve cleaning up graffiti – probably including some of the mess he made himself.

Saunders, of Redmile Walk, Welland, Peterborough, pleaded guilty to damaging the cathedral wall – which will cost £1,000 to clean off – on April 15. He also owned up to painting graffiti on bins and street furniture on June 1, and asked for 12 other incidents to be taken into consideration.

He admitted at Peterborough Magistrates' Court yesterday that he had probably been responsible for graffiti offences on "a few hundred occasions" and his tag name was "Tack".

Saunders was arrested on April 15, after CCTV cameras captured him daubing graffiti on a shop window, and given a caution. Then, on Wednesday he was interviewed and charged with the two offences for which he appeared in court.

Prosecuting, Giles Beaumont said: "When he was arrested, he said he had been doing graffiti in a number of other locations in the city using the tag Tack.

"He asked for 12 locations to be taken into consideration, and there were also the two matters for which he was charged.

"The damage to Peterborough Cathedral will cost £1,000 to clean up, and it will be £50 to clean tags in each of the locations.

"While not able to pinpoint the areas of damage, he admitted it was a few hundred occasions over the last three to four months.

"Regarding the cathedral, he said he was bored at the time and had had a fair bit to drink when he decided to graffiti it."

Magistrates gave Saunders credit for his guilty plea and being upfront about the other incidents.

He was sentenced to 80 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £250 towards the cathedral's clean up and £60 costs.

Speaking afterwards, a spokesman for the Probation Service said: "We work closely with Peterborough City Council, and we do a lot of graffiti removal.

"They identify the worst-affected areas. If remotely possible, our community payback teams try and put people to work in the area where they caused the problem."

Vice Dean of Peterborough Canon Jonathan Baker said: "It may not be practical for him to clean up what he did to the cathedral, but to be forced to spend time cleaning other bits of Peterborough seems like the punishment which fits the crime.

"One thing that saddens me is the way it reveals how some folk don't have pride in Peterborough."