Beggars belief !

City’s vagrants make up to £45,000 a year and most aren’t even homeless, claims rough sleeping expert

BEGGARS are making up to £45,000 a year on the streets, a homelessness expert claims.

They are often not homeless and travel to cities in search of rich pickings, Kim Pike said.

Miss Pike, Nottingham’s rough sleeping coordinator, said it was important to make a distinction between genuine rough sleepers and career beggars exploiting tourists and workers.

She claimed she had spoken to beggars on the streets in Nottingham who had been earning £45,000 a year – tax-free – but ‘have nothing to show for it’ as they had spent it on alcohol and drugs such as mamba, a psychoactive substance.

‘We’ve had people who have been on a night out and they give [a beggar] £100 thinking they are doing them a favour,’ she said.

‘But that amount of money could kill them. It’s £2 for a bag of mamba. If people give even £3 for a meal deal, how do they know it’s going to go on that?’

Miss Pike, 32, took up her post last year after Nottingham City Council was awarded more than £460,000 as part of the Government’s homelessness initiative. Charities in the city said genuine rough sleepers often hide away for safety and warmth, while beggars with homes take to the streets to get cash for drugs and alcohol. Miss Pike goes out with the city’s street outreach team at 5.30am each day. She said the recent hot weather has led to more people ‘coming out of their accommodation’ to beg. ‘It always peaks when it is warmer,’ she said. ‘It’s a massive problem this summer.’

However, a spokesman for the Framework charity in Nottingham said: ‘While it is true some people are very good at begging and bring in significant sums of money, the reality is that they are funding very damaging behaviours and living lives that few of us would envy.’

One beggar who gave his name as Dave, aged 47, said: ‘It’s crazy to think we are given £45,000 a year. They are saying that to make out what we are doing is lucrative. The truth is a regular beggar gets £25 to £30 a day.’

Last year, a Scots council boss warned that many beggars are not homeless and use ‘props’ such as sleeping bags to dupe people into handing over £60 a day.

Sarah Craig, Dundee’s city centre manager, said some of those who appeared homeless actually had accommodation and it was ‘heartbreaking’ to see elderly people hand them money.

She added: ‘They are career beggars. Despite the fact that some of them appear homeless, they have accommodation.’

‘Massive problem this summer’