YOBS who trashed one of the fun new planters in Southend were marched back to their crime scene by cops and made to clean it up.

The young vandals, who tried to destroy a plant arrangement in the shape of a teacup, thought they’d got away with it.

But they were spotted on CCTV ripping up the blooming display in Queens Road.

They then walked up London Road, but camera operators had already notified officers, who swooped to collar the louts just a few yards away.

The group, at least three boys in their early teens, were marched back to the planter and made to scoop up the earth with their hands, before a passing patrol car stopped and handed them each a broom.

Their clean-up act was also captured on CCTV.

Dawn Jeakings, chairman of the Southend Business Improvement District (BID) which put in the three planters, said: “It is testament to the great partnership the Southend BID team has with the police that these people were caught so speedily and made to clean up. I hope this will send a message out to any potential vandals that public property in our town is being monitored closely and the police will swiftly catch up with anyone who attempts to harm it.”

The three planters, in the shape of a teacup, a stiletto and a ferris wheel, are dotted along the High Street and have proved popular with shoppers.

Southend BID installed them as part of a £2.7million regeneration project. Companies signed up to pay towards the initiative, which will plough the cash into improvements for the town over the next five years.

Acting Inspector Ian Hughes, of Southend police, said police always aimed for a “proportionate”

response.

He said: “The town’s CCTV cameras are an integral part of the day and night-time economy of Southend town centre and without their involvement these individuals wouldn’t have been identified.”

No further action was taken against the boys.

  •  Protective screens were initially put around the planters at night to protect them from vandalism. But although they were removed every morning, some shoppers and traders complained they didn’t look nice.

So instead, the planters have now been weighted to make them more difficult to tip over, and sharp cacti planted to give any vandals a shock