IN the run up to the EU referendum, Sgt Dave Green has warned that the defacing of campaign material is a criminal offence.

Sgt Green of Kingsbridge Police has said that in the run up to the election on June 23, it is likely that posters, flyers and placards will be displayed by both sides of the debate.

He said ‘based on local experience from past General Elections, it is equally possible that a small minority of people will think it acceptable to deface or destroy such material’. He said that defacing campaign materials is a criminal offence.

He said it is also an ‘affront to democracy’ and a ‘clear indication that those who engage in such acts of vandalism do not have sufficient faith in their own cause to win the day by mature argument alone’.