JUST Stop Oil activists who cost the taxpayer £104,750 by daubing the Treasury with red paint have been spared jail.
A judge told them the protest while cops were occupied by the nearby ceremony was reckless.
But Judge Nicholas Rimmer also said they were the result of a heartfelt, conscientious conviction.
Handing suspended terms, he said: “I do accept that these actions were shocking rather than violent.
“I am cautiously optimistic.”;
Alexia Hall, 39, Selma Heimedinger, 25, Edred Whittingham, 27, and Piers Clifford, 62, glued themselves to fire extinguishers they used to spray paint over the Westminster building.
It took cleaners three visits, each lasting five or six nights, to scrub off the paint.
Hall, Heimedinger and Whittingham were found guilty after trial in January but Clifford admitted criminal damage.
They got suspended terms of 15 to 18 months at Southwark crown yesterday.
Each has to do 100 hours’ unpaid work and pay £500 compensation.
