Two Just Stop Oil protesters who poured liquid latex over a dummy robot at a Tesla store have been found guilty of £21 of criminal damage.
Retired tax adviser and part-time chess coach Nigel Fleming, 64, and retired teacher Catherine Nash, 75, were given a month-long conditional discharge.
They were released with no further action, but will still get a criminal record.
And if they commit another crime, they can be sentenced for the first offence and the new one.
Fleming and Nash caused £21.78 of criminal damage after they walked into the Westfield Tesla store in Shepherd’s Bush in March and poured orange liquid latex over a mannequin Optimus robot, which had to be cleaned.
They also unfurled a banner and made political statements about Tesla owner Elon Musk, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.
The pair then stood around before police officers arrived.
The west London shop was shut for 45 minutes and then reopened without the humanoid model Tesla Bot.
Fleming, from Barnet, north London, and Nash, from Kendal, Cumbria, who represented themselves in court, will have to split the compensation costs of £21.78, and each will have to pay a £26 victim surcharge.
Fleming said in evidence that they had been careful about choosing the target, preparing the liquid and limiting the possible impact.
He said they were surprised when an earlier charge put the potential damage caused at £2,696.40.
This was lowered to £21.78 before Wednesday’s trial and covers the cost of having to clean the mannequin.
Read more from Sky News:
‘Anti-ice’ engraved bullet found at scene of shooting – FBI
First migrants arrive in UK under ‘one in, one out’ deal
District judge Louisa Cieciora told the defendants that despite the care they took in choosing their target, they still caused damage to private property in the 12 March incident.
She said: “There is no dispute that both of you poured latex over the robot and the latex had to be removed.”
She described the cleaning cost as “incredibly low and reasonable” and that an employee had to clean it and “the value is calculated in terms of their time and nothing else”.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
‘Temporary impairment of usefullness’
The judge said: “Latex was poured on the robot. It had to be removed from the robot and there was temporary impairment of usefulness.”
She added: “You both poured the latex on the mannequin knowing it would have to be removed somehow, for however long that took someone, whether it is for a matter of minutes.”
Fleming said he and Nash both poured half a cup of thickened latex over the model robot.
Nash said the Tesla Bot was chosen because Mr Musk had “influence in US politics” at the time, and the protest was because “my grandchildren and other children are at stake as we hurtle towards climate collapse”.
