‘Persistent’ beggar jailed
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A ‘PERSISTENT beggar’ who escalated her criminality to burglary after flouting restrictions to stop her beseeching for cash from the public has been locked away.
Pest Rebecca Connelly will not be able to badger people on the streets of Fareham and Gosport after she was jailed for a year.
The 29-year-old, of no fixed address, was dished a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) in November 2019 to stop her from entering areas of Fareham town centre and begging for money from the public.
But on November 12 this year, Connelly was caught begging in Victoria Street, Gosport.
That day, she also burgled a house on the same street between 6.50pm and 7.20pm where £260 cash was stolen.
At Portsmouth Crown Court on Thursday, Connelly admitted t he offences and was jailed for 10 months for the burglary and two months for breaching her CBO.
Gosport Inspector Matt Wake said: ‘Rebecca Connelly is a persistent beggar in the Fareham and Gosport areas.
‘While we of course sympathise with people’s individual circumstances, this type of behaviour has a negative impact on people who live and work in the town and can sometimes be linked to other criminality.
‘This was the case for Connelly, whose behaviour escalated to committing burglary.
‘CBOs are imposed to prevent people from continuing this sort of behaviour, but there are those individuals who ignore the conditions and continue to break the law.
‘We encourage anyone affected by this type of behaviour, and by other for ms of anti-social behaviour and associated criminal activity to report this to us so we can take action.’