Teresa Stratton with the graffiti on her garage Picture Ref: 77393-03FOR Teresa Stratton, the graffiti surrounding her West Swindon home has left her feeling as if she is under siege from vandals.

And it seems to be getting worse.

Now she doesn't even bother washing the tags from her property as the 48-year-old is resigned to the fact that the graffiti vandals will return.

Mrs Stratton, a lab technician, moved to Conyers Close in Grange Park just over a year ago with her partner.

She said: "I always noticed that there was a bit of graffiti in the area but not enough to really worry about it.

"But now, it's everywhere and it makes the whole place look depressing and untidy.

"It's not artistic at all, but just these tags that look like they were drawn by a spider.

"Something has got to be done about it.

"I tried contacting the police, but they weren't able to help.

"This problem needs to be highlighted as we feel like we are under siege."

According to Mrs Stratton it started to get really bad a few weeks ago and, instead of just targeting signs and postboxes, the vandals started daubing her home with the unsightly scrawl.

She said: "I came home from the shops to find three youths, aged 13 to 15, in the process of putting graffiti across the windows of my garage.

"They had already attacked a nearby telephone box with graffiti.

"I banged on the window and told them to push off but they just stayed there.

"I then shouted at them something along the lines of 'would you do this to your own mother's house?' But they only ran off when my partner came out."

She reported this incident to the police. Since then she has washed her garage several times but the yobs keep coming back.

Now she has given up as she feels there is nothing that can be done about it.

She said: "It's awful. I bet it brings down the house prices throughout the area. It's a huge problem and it is out of hand."