A Plymouth man who had &apos;surf snitch&apos; daubed on his van after he photographed a secret surfer hideout has had the last laugh.
Ben Landricombe has launched his own clothing and sticker label - appropriately called Surf Snitch - as a way of sticking it to those who sought to sting him for uncovering &apos;their&apos; Plymouth Sound paradise.
The Plymstock amateur photographer took stunning snaps earlier this year of rare waves breaking against a backdrop of ferries, submarines and warships.
But his images went down like a lead balloon with a section of the surfing community who were dismayed he had lifted the lid on their &apos;secret waves&apos;.
It all got nasty when Ben, 36, returned to his van one night only to find vandals had scrawled it in offensive words, slashed his tyres and filled the exhaust with rubble. He also said he received a number of other threats which sought to undermine him.
But now he&apos;s bounced back with his &apos;Surf Snitch&apos; fashion brand.
With the help of his wife Maria, he hopes the collection of T-shirts, car and skateboard stickers will take off and potentially become as big as Quicksilver and Billabong.
Speaking to Plymouth Live, Ben said: "It&apos;s a little act of revenge - because they did do a lot of damage to my vehicle.
"Plus some people were so much to me, people who I didn&apos;t even know, when the incident happened.
"Perhaps it&apos;s my way of getting back at them."
But Ben says it&apos;s also his way of positively moving on from a weird time in his life.
"This is a way of showing how everybody can share the waves - there&apos;s a big row between body-boarders and surfers.
"This is coming from something that was negative and I want to make something positive from all the hate mail I got.
"I didn&apos;t realise how bad it would actually get," he added.
"I surfed their all the time and it was quiet. Hardly anyone used it. I don&apos;t know why it got so out of hand."
The Surf Snitch website will be launched in the coming days and in the meantime Ben&apos;s started flogging his clobber on Facebook.
"I can&apos;t stand work so hopefully now I&apos;ll be able to go on and work for myself - I just love surfing and the outdoors," he said.
"Everyone seems to be trapped in this world of 9-5 - I want to do something more. And my wife has been amazing."