Mayor Bev Buckway was in court Wednesday to ask that the graffiti tagger known as Sonic clean up his handy work.

She was invited to speak at the disposition hearing of Jesse Pickles, a.k.a. Sonic, the young man responsible for a significant amount of graffiti tags around the city.

Pickles, 19, was caught in the act of tagging several vehicles along Sixth Avenue in early September with the letters "E-Z”.

He pleaded guilty to mischief charges. He told the RCMP he was the person responsible for scrawling the name "Sonic” all over Whitehorse.

He was in court Wednesday to receive his sentence.

Graffiti tags are the names or symbols graffiti artists use to identify their work. They are also a source of complaints from citizens, business owners and visitors when sprayed uninvited on public or private property.

"It's an eyesore, and it casts a very bad light on our city,” Buckway said of the spray paint vandalism which graces many of Whitehorse's garbage cans, alley walls and park benches.

The sight of graffiti is intimidating to tourists, she said, and gives the impression this a crime-riddled city.

Furthermore, it is a drain on the city's resources, Buckway said. Every year, Whitehorse spends $100,000 removing spray paint from its property and infrastructure. Many more thousands are spent by home and business owners in cleaning up their private property.

She asked the court to make graffiti cleanup part of the young man's community service sentence.

Pickles told the court he had been drinking with some friends on the night he was caught. He had found a couple cans of spray paint by the clay cliffs and, along with another young man, decided to go out tagging.

"It was just stupid stuff,” Pickles when asked what his tag meant. "It doesn't mean anything.”

As Justice of the Peace Dean Cameron told Pickles in court yesterday: "It is recognized in some places in the world that graffiti is art.

Meaningless scrawl isn't .... If you feel you have to express yourself by way of art, there are lots of ways to do that without damaging property.”

In this case, the cost of repairing the damage was $1,100 for the owner of a motor home and $500 for the electrical company which had a pickup and a bucket truck vandalized.

Pickles was ordered to pay that money back within a year. If he doesn't pay, the justice of the peace warned, he could be sued for the money and have his wages garnisheed.

"The sooner you pay it, the sooner it's out of your hair,” Cameron said.

He also noted that it is not entirely Pickles' debt to pay, but since he was the only one caught out of the two people seen tagging that night, he must bear all the responsibility.

"If there were two of you, the restitution would be shared,” Cameron said. "... (The other man) now owes you half of that money.”

Pickles said he had met his partner in crime on the evening he was caught and only knew the other man's first name.