EIGHT "untouchable" graffiti artists have been jailed for a total of almost eight years for their part in an international vandalism spree.

Known as the DPM Crew, the gang began targeting railway stations and trains in south London in 2004, including Orpington, Grove Park and Croydon Tramlink depots.

It also vandalised railway infrastructure in Paris, Amsterdam and the Czech Republic.

Gang members were eventually arrested in Orpington in June 2006 but the group is estimated to have cost the railway industry £600,000 after committing 120 offences.

Gang members Paul Stewart, aged 26, of Kellerton Road, Lewisham; Ziggy Grudzinskas, aged 25, of Ulundi Road, Blackheath, and 25-year-old Slav Zinoviev, of St Johns Hill, Battersea, were all jailed for 18 months.

Matthew Pease, aged 24, of Manor Lane, Lewisham, was sentenced to 15 months in jail.

Jack Binnie, aged 25, of Adelaide Road, Lewisham, and 23-year-old Matthew Tanti, from Streatham, both received a 12-month suspended sentence and 200 hours community service.

Andrew Gillman, aged 25, from Battersea, was handed a two-year jail term while Alex McClelland, aged 24, from West Dulwich, received a nine-month suspended sentence and 150 hours' community service.

Detective Superintendent Michael Field, who led the inquiry, said: "This group targeted the rail network in a guerilla-type fashion.

"As the evidence shows the tags used were pure vandalism.

"There is nothing artistic in what this group engaged in. They thought they were untouchable.

"Frankly, some of their scrawlings could best be described as school pupils having to rewrite lines on a chalk board for detention."

The group admitted a charge of conspiracy to commit criminal damage last month and were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court yesterday.

Another gang member, 21-year-old James Teasdale, from Dulwich, was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £300 compensation at Southwark Crown Court on May 27 after pleading guilty to the same charge.