‘Windscreen gang’ fined just £15 each Criticism as women admit begging at junctions

FINES of just £15 handed to a gang of begging windscreen washers have been branded an “open invitation” for them to continue their illegal activities at busy Birmingham junctions.

A group of five women, all from Romania, admitted begging when they appeared at Birmingham Magistrates Court – and were handed fines of between £15 and £20.

Two more defendants pleaded not guilty and will go to a full trial.

Gang members had been filmed wiping windscreens of cars stopped at lights in Belgrave Middleway and Bristol Road, in Highgate, and aggressively demanding money from motorists as they waited.

But Des Flood, Conservative councillor for Bartley Green, who watched the court case, said he was “disgusted” by the leniency of the sentences.

He claimed he saw the gang laughing as they left court.

”I have no doubt that they were laughing at the leniency of the sentences,’’ he told the Birmingham Post.

“The magistrates have given these illegal windscreen washers an open invitation to continue to harass lawabiding motorists.

“These soft sentences are no deterrent to stop this plague on our city.

“This decision by the magistrates makes a mockery of the excellent work being done by the police, to arrest these beggars and put them before the courts.

“The police are stuck between a rock and a hard place in dealing with this issue.

“If one of these illegal windscreen washer beggars is knocked down by a car, as soon as the police arrive it will be the police who will become the focus of the problem.

“This is a serious accident waiting to happen.”

He also disputed claims that the beggars are making pennies – and believes they are taking £60 a day on average.

“We need a tougher approach by the courts in handing out stiffer sentences to these illegal beggars,” said

Councillor Flood, who is responsible for crime and community safety in the Edgbaston District and has, himself, been pressured by windscreen beggars.

“I was waiting at red lights with my son and two-year-old twin granddaughters in the car on a Saturday afternoon at the Bristol Road traffic lights next to McDonald’s,” he said.

“Suddenly, this woman ran across the busy traffic and started to clean my front windscreen, without any invitation. She then knocked on the side windscreen for payment and continued to knock on the window as I tried to ignore her. My grandchildren became upset and started crying.

“She only stopped when the lights turned to green and the traffic started to move.”