Town ‘plagued by beggars’ where only 1 in 20 of them are genuinely homeless

POLICE in a town plagued by ‘professional beggars’ say just one in 20 of them are genuinely homeless.

Organised gangs of ‘aggressive and intimidating’ opportunists arrive in Middlesbrough by train and work in shifts to earn up to £400 a night, locals claim.

Officers attempting to eradicate the problem spoke to 20 beggars last weekend – but found only one was homeless and not claiming benefits. And during the two-day operation police arrested a man who made a 35mile round trip to ask for spare change.

The council has warned that ‘prolific’ vagrants claim up to £2,000 a month in benefits while topping up their income through begging. Local business owners said the ‘organised gang’ target drinkers by pretending to be homeless and disabled. Cleveland Police arrested three men on Friday and Saturday for breaching a dispersal notice ordering them to stop congregating in certain areas.

They said one of the men was arrested twice in the 48-hour period after travelling from Loftus in North Yorkshire – a 35-mile round trip. They added: ‘We will continue to police the location and offer help to those caught begging. However, please be reassured there is help there for them and nearly all are not homeless – despite their claims.’

Stephen Spensely, who runs bar TS1 in the town, said: I’ve seen them be aggressive and intimidating. One guy is begging in a wheelchair one minute and later you’ll see him walking through the town having made a miraculous recovery.

‘We’ve had them bragging to us that they can earn £200 a night. One lad said that on the night Middlesbrough were promoted to the Premier League in 2016 he made £400.’

The problem of ‘professional beggars’ is facing towns and cities across the country. Last year a homeless charity said ‘fake beggars’ in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, were making up to £200 a day out of wealthy locals. And police in Ely, Cambridgeshire, have previously warned locals that all beggars there were bogus.

A spokesman for the Middlesbrough Neighbourhood Police Team said: ‘We engaged with 20 people who were suspected to be begging in the town centre. However out of the 20 people only one person had no address and no live benefit claims.’