A Banksy wannabe who admitted to spraying graffiti throughout Chippenham town centre has been forced to wash away some of his handiwork.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was caught after PCSOs in his school discovered his identity.

The boy admitted responsibility for some of the ‘wore’ and ‘nero’ tags daubed around the town.

Now police are warning others that if the graffiti continues, plans to build a specially designed wall for their efforts will be scrapped.

Chippenham beat manager Ashleigh Jones said: “Thanks to the work of PCSOs in the boy’s school, we were able to track him down and give him some appropriate punishment.

“He spent a few hours in the Rowden Hill and Audley Road area with a bucket and soap cleaning away some of the tags.

“I can’t imagine he’ll be doing any more graffiti now, but we are warning others about this.

“If we catch anyone doing anything like this, the authorised wall we are planning in the town will be taken off.”

PC Jones has been fighting the war against graffiti for several months after noticing the tags on bollards, road signs, bus stops and buildings, including the Allied Carpets building and the Bridge Centre.

She said: “We and the council have worked very hard and gone to a lot of trouble to get a wall for the town.

“If there is any more trouble of this nature, it will be taken away altogether.”

Coun Bill Douglas, who has worked with the Chippenham Area Board to secure funding for the authorised wall, said he is optimistic about the project.

“It’s still in the early stages – no funding has yet been granted as we don’t know the exact figures yet, but we are hoping the wall should be in place later this year,” he said.

“It’s likely there will always be graffiti to some extent in Chippenham, and we do understand that. However, if there’s somewhere for people to go and be proud of their work, that will hopefully do something to reduce the level of it in the town centre.”

The wall is likely to be set up away from residential areas close to the river.