Possible new Banksy piece from Homerton - London

THE elusive street artist, Banksy, seems to have come back to the borough despite Hackney Council's determination to scrub out his iconic graffiti.

A new image has appeared on a brick wall in Homerton High Street, showing a little boy crying because his toy car has been clamped by traffic cops.

The artwork, set between two unusually-placed red phone boxes, uses the stencil technique and ironic political humour for which the Bristol-based guerrilla graffiti artist, whose distinctive paintings sell for as much as £250,000, is famed.

Banksy seems to be giving the council, which considers his work an illegal eyesore, the finger with his new creation adorning Hackney's walls even though the town hall has ordered other pieces of his to be erased in Dalston and Stoke Newington.

The council's decision to black out a much-loved Banksy mural on the side of a block of flats in Stoke Newington Church Street in August divided the community, with many residents accusing officers of vandalism.

Hackney music promoter and artist, Phillip Hall, said he was convinced the new artwork had been created by the notoriously mysterious Banksy, but that it should not suffer the same fate.