Police are urging parents to check their children's schoolbooks for evidence that they may be daubing walls with graffiti.

People are being asked to look for evidence of a signature mark, or tag.

The appeal comes from Bognor-based Sergeant Russ Phillips, who has been touring the town checking on the latest outbreak of graffiti.

He said: "Tagging is the signature or mark left behind by a vandal and we would ask parents to look for evidence of this in schoolbooks or on bits of paper.

"There is a good chance that if a tag is appearing again and again their child or their child's friends may be spraying the same tag around the town.

"If we can find out who is responsible we can pay them a visit and put a stop to it."

Sergeant Phillips has also urged people who see buildings being defaced to phone police immediately.

He added: "If a member of the public sees a vandal at work and can call us straight away it will help give us the edge to try to stop it happening."

Apart from the cost of getting rid of graffiti, police say the vandals are heightening people's fear of crime.