by TaxPayers' Alliance
VANDALS have caused a massive £27MILLION worth of damage across Scotland in just SEVEN months.
A Scottish Sun investigation has revealed that from January to July this year, there were a whopping 56,567 acts of vandalism across the country.
Crimes include damage to kids' playparks, buildings being destroyed and parked cars being wrecked.
Experts and politicians have united to condemn the yobs' mindless violence - some of which hard-pressed taxpayers have to foot the bill for.
Susie Squire, political director at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "It's disgraceful that law-abiding Scottish taxpayers are having to pick up the tab for this vandalism.
"This situation is financially unsustainable and police forces must do more to catch and punish the perpetrators, saving taxpayers' money and getting rid of eyesore destruction to boot."
And Labour justice spokesman Richard Baker fumed: "The SNP have been soft on anti-social behaviour and this is the result.
"Millions of pounds worth of damage is blighting communities and hitting hardworking people in the pocket. "This shows their way of dealing with vandals simply isn't working."
Destruction The figures were gathered from a Freedom of Information request sent to every police force in the country.
Three of the eight forces - Strathclyde, Grampian and Tayside - were able to supply their own figures on the cost of vandalism to their area.
The other five - Central, Dumfries and Galloway, Fife, Lothian and Borders and Northern - use a different computer system, and couldn't provide the amount.
To calculate the cost, we took the number of vandalism crimes in their area and multiplied it by the average cost for criminal damage, as set out by the Home Office.
Compared to last year's figures for the same period, the police have managed to secure a DROP of 4,405 crimes of vandalism.
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