A school head called in police after pupils daubed graffiti on a nearby cafe.

And he made it clear that he would support their prosecution if necessary.

Peter Evans, head teacher at Cardinal Newman School, Hove, decided on tough action after a complaint from staff at the cafe in Dyke Road Park.

Two boys from the school were identified as being responsible for spraying graffiti on the outisde of the cafe and in the toilets.

They admitted what they had done when confronted by Mr Evans, who ordered them to clean up the damage.

Cafe manageress Mrs Norma Fair said: "We had problems with these particular boys for a couple of weeks.

"They were spraying the walls and on one occassion came in here and threw tomato ketchup all over the place.

"The school was marvellous when they found out about it and made them come up and clean the walls.

"We get a lot of students from Cardinal Newman in here and most are extremely well behaved."

Mr Evans said the school had also offered to contribute towards the cost of redecorating the council-owned building.

He said: "PC Mark Gorringe and the other beat officers give regular talks to our pupils and we have built up a good releationship with them.

"I am determined to support them in the work they do by making it clear there is no place for this kind of anti-social behaviour from pupils at this school.

"It is important that students should come to terms with the fact that they have to take responsibility for their own actions.

"As a result, we would have supported the police in prosecuting these two boys if they had felt it necessary."

PC Mark Gorringe, of Hove police, said graffiti is on the increase in the town.

He said: "There have been an increasing number of incidents recently, including here and in the roads behind George Street.

"We want to get across the message that this is not vandalism, it is criminal damage and that is what people will be prosecuted for.

"In this case, we had the full support of the head who informed us when he discovered who was responsible.

"In the circumstances, it has been decided not to prosecute and has been dealt with by giving warnings to those concerned."

Last week we revealed how the head at Kings Manor Community College, Shoreham, called in police to deal with a drugs problem.

Two boys were seen rolling a cannabis joint by senior teachers in the school grounds.