This is the moment a professional beggar called police ‘scumbags’ after he was given an ASBO for pestering shoppers for cash in an extraordinary new fake homelessness documentary.
The unnamed man, who was ordered out of Cambridge city centre for 48 hours, explodes with rage and asks the officer: ‘What’s anti-social about sleeping in a doorway?’
The dispute is featured in the BBC Three documentary ‘Fake Homeless: Who’s Begging On The Streets?’, which will be available to stream on iPlayer from Sunday night.
Cambridgeshire Police has taken a hard line on begging after it emerged there was regular fighting over the best pitches with one former rough sleeper claiming they can earn £39,000-a-year from donations.
A beggar blasts police as scumbags after the gave him an ASBO for persistently asking for money on the streets of Cambridge
The unnamed man loses his temper with the officer who bans him from the area for 48 hours and asks: : ‘What’s anti-social about sleeping in a doorway?’
One woman told Ellie Flynn she would ‘lie low’ until they could slip back on to Cambridge’s streets to beg
One couple in a city centre doorway were filmed being moved on by police for persistent begging.
The police officer says: ‘I’ve had several conversations with you every time we’re out about begging. You guys are always sat begging and to be fair a lot of the time we’re lenient about it’.
The beggar responds: ‘Because we’re homeless and sleeping in the doorway, yeah, they’ve come to give us a dispersal notice.
‘We can’t enter the town centre for 48 hours because apparently this is unsocial behaviour. What’s anti-social about sleeping in a doorway?’
He then says to the police: ‘Have a nice day scumbags’ before cycling off as his female friend admits they will ignore it, adding: ‘We’ll just have to lie low won’t we’.
Emily, who lives in Cambridge, is also identified as a professional beggar and describes it as her full time job.
Documentary maker Ellie Flynn reveals that while begging for money Emily is also paid benefits twice a month and has access to a taxpayer-funded flat.
She replies: ‘I try and turn up every day. This is work to me. It was either this or be a hooker. That’s the truth. There aren’t many options for a person like me.’
Emily describes begging as her full time job and suggested that any other options of earning money apart from prostitution are limited for her
Emily, left, who is on benefits and has a council flat told BBC journalist Ellie Flynn that begging in Cambridge was her job because it was ‘either this or be a hooker’
Councils, charities and police admit ‘deceptive’ begging is a growing problem in busy towns and cities with people now urged to give food, drink or clothes – but not money.
The number of people sleeping rough in England is at a record high and Government data shows that on any given night over the autumn last year, nearly 5,000 people were recorded sleeping on the streets – a figure that has more than doubled since 2010.
But Merseyside Police has revealed that between 2015 and 2018 it believes 80 per cent of people arrested for begging were not genuinely homeless and have ‘some kind of home’ to go to.
Damian, from Liverpool told the documentary the fake beggars ‘p**s him off’ because it gives the ‘genuinely’ homeless like him a bad name.
Men and women identified as professional beggars were filmed being issued with antisocial behaviour notices, which ban them from town and city centres.
Businessman Ashley Sims is vowing to rid Britain’s streets of professional beggars, starting in Torbay
Homelessness charities say people in the documentary may well have homes, but could have complex and chaotic lives that led to them begging on the streets.
They also argue that people are demonising the homeless population, who already face a lack of trust and abuse from the public.
Sergeant Phil Priestley of Cambridgeshire Police said earlier this year in a warning to visitors: ‘We do not want people to be misled because it can be a lucrative opportunity.
‘If you do feel moved to give something – offer food or a warm drink by all means – but please do not offer money.’
Humanity Torbay has also urged people to give food, drink or clothes rather than cash.
Local man Ashley Sims has vowed to rid the streets of professional beggars who he claims earn up to £150 per day from kind-hearted shoppers.
Mr Sims says his campaign to name and shame ‘fake homeless’ has proved an outstanding success during a trial in Torquay.
Since he began distributing warning posters targeting professional beggars – on lamp-posts and social media sites – he says around a dozen have left the English Riviera to try their luck elsewhere.
He insists his threat to post their photographs – and in some cases full names – have succeeded where police and Torbay Council have failed.
He said in February: ‘One thing these people don’t like is being photographed or filmed, so we’ve gone and done that.
‘We have identified who is genuine with the relevant charities and their names and if they are homeless or not. Five of them have told us they wont go begging anymore if I don’t out their photo up. Of the 17 photographed, only two were genuine street homeless.’
Fake Homeless: Who’s Begging On The Streets? will be available to stream on BBC Three from Sunday November 25.