Beggars retreat after 27 arrested in homelessness 'audit'

Harvey McGavin
Monday 01 March 2004 01:00 GMT
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Wrapped in blankets and wearing two woolly hats, Tommy looked up from the pavement at passers-by on the Strand, and asked them politely if they could spare any change. Hardly anyone met his gaze and fewer still gave him money. In three hours in freezing weather, Tommy had amassed the grand total of 45 pence. "Not even enough for a cup of tea," he said.

Across the road, Sunday afternoon shoppers and tourists queued at cashpoints unchallenged by the beggars usually stationed beside them. Westminster City Council's weekend clampdown on aggressive begging seemed to have scared them off.

Twenty-seven people were arrested over the weekend in a joint operation between the council and the Metropolitan Police. Yesterday the council declared the scheme a great success and hinted at even tougher measures to come. Kit Malthouse, the deputy leader, predicted that the "zero tolerance" policy towards beggars would be adopted by other British cities.

Operation Loose Change, described as an audit of homelessness in the West End in London, used closed circuit television and tip-offs from council staff such as streetcleaners and traffic wardens to identify aggressive beggars. The alleged offenders were then arrested, fingerprinted and had DNA samples taken before being released on bail.

Crisis, the homelessness charity, said that the council's actions would serve only to criminalise homeless people. "All this will create is a series of additional barriers for people wanting to escape homelessness for good," a spokesman said.

"The vast majority of people who beg are homeless and all are vulnerable. What they desperately need is support to deal with their problems and find a route back into society. Ignoring these problems and embarking on costly crackdowns is a waste of public money and grossly demeaning to homeless people."

Mr Malthouse said that the operation would act as a general deterrent against begging, gather data on those people "for whom begging is a symptom of other problems" and identify those persistent beggars who do it for financial gain. Those who continued to harass members of the public for money would become the subject of anti-social behaviour orders. "The idea that everyone begging is down on their luck is a fantasy," he said.

Mr Malthouse said the council would be stepping up its campaign of "positive and negative incentives" to begging and homelessness which has introduced no drinking zones around tourist attractions such as Westminster Cathedral.

Charities that run soup kitchens in London were encouraging people to stay on the streets, he said, and unless they redirected their "laudable and charitable efforts" they could face prosecution for parking or environmental health regulations. Westminster was a magnet for rough sleepers and some homelessness charities had a vested interest in the problem continuing, he said.

The usual begging hotspots around Covent Garden, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus were deserted yesterday.

Down on the Strand, Tommy contemplated the potentially rich pickings on the pavement opposite and shook his head. Now in his late twenties, he has been on the streets for nine years, ever since his two children were killed in a car crash. "It ripped me apart. Since then I've just wanted to be on my own," he said.

Begging is his only option, he says, but he would never sit beside a cashpoint to do it. "That's intimidating," he said. "I won't have people look at me as if I'm some sort of threat. I'm not a threat to anybody."

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