Twenty-six-year-old Martene Rourke, who appeared from custody on Wednesday, was ordered to pay £1290 in compensation – half the expense of having the train cleaned – after she pleaded guilty to carrying out the offence while acting along with another person during a visit to Wick between September 6 and September 8 last year.

She admitted to the court that she had maliciously spray-painted graffiti on the First Scotrail train while it was in the station at Wick.

Pleas of not guilty to painting trains in Edinburgh, Motherwell and Glasgow were accepted.

During the case the court learned that the spray-painting of graffiti on trains was a culture which was first introduced in New York and was used by artists to have their work viewed on a moving medium. Outlining the situation as he understood it, senior fiscal depute David Barclay stated that there appeared to be an "underground subculture" of people painting railway carriages and other related objects. He observed: "It is not something which tends to come as far north as this."

Mr Barclay said: "It was explained to me by police officers involved in this case that this was not what you might call a typical form of vandalism. This was very artistic and talented graffiti. Obviously something that took some time to administer."

Providing the background to the arrest, the fiscal told the court that police officers had cause to board a train in Kirkcaldy which was heading from Inverness to Edinburgh.

Mr Barclay said: "Whilst the train was being searched it was noticed that the accused, travelling with another person, was wearing items of clothing with spray paint on them and also a quantity of spray paint was found in her possession. The officers were aware of a recent train graffiti incident in Wick which had happened a day or two earlier. They noticed the colours of the spray paint matched the colours used in Wick."

The accused was subsequently detained and questioned by the police, but made no comment during the interview and denied being in Wick. In a subsequent inquiry Rourke admitted being in the town at the time of the incident.

The carriage which was painted by Martene Rourke as it sat in Wick Railway Station. She admitted the offence and will have to pay half the cleaning costs.

Mr Barclay pointed out that train graffiti resulted in carriages having to be taken out of service and replaced while the paint was removed by specialists. He stated that in the Glasgow area alone in excess of £200,000 was spent each year to cover the costs of graffiti.

The fiscal stressed: "As a result of this particular incident, the cost of removing the graffiti was £2580."

Mr Barclay said that by pleading guilty Rourke, a first offender, had saved the court time as the case had generated a substantial amount of witnesses.

Defence agent Jo McDonald said that Rourke, who graduated from the Glasgow School of Art, had been travelling back and fore from Hanover where she was teaching English to German students. She stated that the accused accepted that she needed to pay compensation, but explained that Rourke had a substantial amount of student debt, around £13,000, and therefore had limited finances. Ms McDonald explained that graffiti on trains had started in New York as a way of art moving around, and stressed that in the cold light of day her client had realised that while her art was something she wanted people to see, spray-painting the carriage in Wick had not been the right thing to do. The solicitor added: "She is clearly artistically talented."

Admonishing Rourke, honorary sheriff Murray Lamont said: "I have taken into account what I have heard. You are obviously a talented person with a promising career, it would be a shame to spoil it with an offence like this."

Ordering Rourke to pay half the expense incurred in having the train cleaned, Mr Lamont added: "I hope you channel your talents to more useful needs in the future."

Following the court case, Constable Stephen Hughes, of British Transport Police, said: "No matter what anyone says, graffiti is vandalism and these vandals cost the rail industry across Great Britain millions of pounds each year.

"This sentence sends out the clear message that vandalism and criminality on the rail network in Scotland will not be tolerated."

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