ianstone
09-01-2010, 01:48 PM
'Professional' beggar who made £23,400-a-year on the streets (plus £4,160 in benefits) is fined just £100
By Andy Dolan (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Andy+Dolan)
Last updated at 4:48 PM on 1st September 2010 http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/01/article-1308039-0AFF5FCF000005DC-72_233x612.jpg Daniel Terry, 31, who topped his £80 a week disability benefit up to an impressive £27,560 a year with his income as a street beggar was fined £100 for begging.
A professional beggar has told a court how he earned up to £23,400-a-year on the streets on top of £80-a-week in benefits which he claimed were 'not enough to get by on'.
Daniel Terry, 31, used a scruffy sleeping bag and a blanket to dupe passers-by into believing he was 'homeless and helpless' as he begged for cash on his patch at a revitalised city waterfront, a court heard.
But despite facing a maximum fine of £1,000 after admitting an offence of begging, Terry walked free from court with a £100 fine and an order to pay £40 in costs and a victims surcharge - to the outrage of campaigners.
Terry was arrested last month after police in the cathedral city of Lincoln launched a crackdown on vagrancy following a survey revealed many beggars were making the equivalent of a £20,000-a-year salary when they were not even homeless.
Terry was sentenced by the city's magistrates on Tuesday, where the court heard he told police he earned as much as £50 on a weekday and £100-a-day at weekends - which works out as an annual income of £23,400 if he begged every day of the year.
The trickster lives with his girlfriend at a friend's council flat three days of the week and spends the rest of the time sleeping on other friends' sofas.
Yesterday he claimed he had no option but to beg because he would struggle to survive on just his £80-a-week incapacity benefit, which he receives because he suffers from the neurological condition Tourette's syndrome.
Speaking from the friend's council flat in Lincoln, Terry said: 'When I was interviewed I know I said that sometimes you make £40 or £50 a day, but that is very rare.
'It's true that sometimes you will get somebody that will give you a £20 note out of the blue, and then it is a good day, but that does not happen very often.
'I get £80 a week, but that is just not enough to get by on. I help out with the rent on the council flat where my girlfriend is staying, chip in for the bills and have to feed myself, so there never seems to be any money left.'
Terry, who has 22 previous convictions, mainly for low-level dishonesty offences, claimed he was always polite when begging and dismissed suggestions he may have spent the cash on drink and drugs as 'a joke'.
Terry said he left school with nine GCSEs and worked as an estate agent and in an office before falling into unemployment.
He claimed he found it difficult to hold down a job and turned to begging a year ago when he was made homeless from his own council flat because he owed £400 in back rent.
He vowed he would now stay off the streets and added: 'Until a few weeks ago the police would just walk past me and say 'hello', I even had one give me a £2 coin, but now they are arresting us.'
During Lincolnshire Police's Operation Woodpecker to combat vagrancy and help genuinely homeless people get off the streets, another fraudster, Robert Reid, 38, who also receives incapacity benefit, was twice found begging in Lincoln's historic shopping district despite having a council flat just three miles away.
Inspector Mark Garthwaite said: 'While we do have people who live on the streets with serious personal and financial problems, there are some who are simply using this as a way of making money and sometimes they are threatening and intimidating.'
A spokesman for the Tax Payers Alliance branded Terry a 'charlatan' who was 'earning more money begging than many taxpayers do from honest, hard-work.'
He said Terry's sentence was a 'disgrace', given he had also been claiming benefits on top of his illegal income.
The court heard that Section 3 of the Vagrancy Act 1824 no longer gives magistrates the right to imprison beggars.
According to figures from the Office of National Statistics, the average annual wage for full-time employees rose by 2.6 per cent to £25,800 in the year to September 2009.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308039/Beggar-boasts-27-560-income.html#ixzz0yIjbp4Rg
By Andy Dolan (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Andy+Dolan)
Last updated at 4:48 PM on 1st September 2010 http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/01/article-1308039-0AFF5FCF000005DC-72_233x612.jpg Daniel Terry, 31, who topped his £80 a week disability benefit up to an impressive £27,560 a year with his income as a street beggar was fined £100 for begging.
A professional beggar has told a court how he earned up to £23,400-a-year on the streets on top of £80-a-week in benefits which he claimed were 'not enough to get by on'.
Daniel Terry, 31, used a scruffy sleeping bag and a blanket to dupe passers-by into believing he was 'homeless and helpless' as he begged for cash on his patch at a revitalised city waterfront, a court heard.
But despite facing a maximum fine of £1,000 after admitting an offence of begging, Terry walked free from court with a £100 fine and an order to pay £40 in costs and a victims surcharge - to the outrage of campaigners.
Terry was arrested last month after police in the cathedral city of Lincoln launched a crackdown on vagrancy following a survey revealed many beggars were making the equivalent of a £20,000-a-year salary when they were not even homeless.
Terry was sentenced by the city's magistrates on Tuesday, where the court heard he told police he earned as much as £50 on a weekday and £100-a-day at weekends - which works out as an annual income of £23,400 if he begged every day of the year.
The trickster lives with his girlfriend at a friend's council flat three days of the week and spends the rest of the time sleeping on other friends' sofas.
Yesterday he claimed he had no option but to beg because he would struggle to survive on just his £80-a-week incapacity benefit, which he receives because he suffers from the neurological condition Tourette's syndrome.
Speaking from the friend's council flat in Lincoln, Terry said: 'When I was interviewed I know I said that sometimes you make £40 or £50 a day, but that is very rare.
'It's true that sometimes you will get somebody that will give you a £20 note out of the blue, and then it is a good day, but that does not happen very often.
'I get £80 a week, but that is just not enough to get by on. I help out with the rent on the council flat where my girlfriend is staying, chip in for the bills and have to feed myself, so there never seems to be any money left.'
Terry, who has 22 previous convictions, mainly for low-level dishonesty offences, claimed he was always polite when begging and dismissed suggestions he may have spent the cash on drink and drugs as 'a joke'.
Terry said he left school with nine GCSEs and worked as an estate agent and in an office before falling into unemployment.
He claimed he found it difficult to hold down a job and turned to begging a year ago when he was made homeless from his own council flat because he owed £400 in back rent.
He vowed he would now stay off the streets and added: 'Until a few weeks ago the police would just walk past me and say 'hello', I even had one give me a £2 coin, but now they are arresting us.'
During Lincolnshire Police's Operation Woodpecker to combat vagrancy and help genuinely homeless people get off the streets, another fraudster, Robert Reid, 38, who also receives incapacity benefit, was twice found begging in Lincoln's historic shopping district despite having a council flat just three miles away.
Inspector Mark Garthwaite said: 'While we do have people who live on the streets with serious personal and financial problems, there are some who are simply using this as a way of making money and sometimes they are threatening and intimidating.'
A spokesman for the Tax Payers Alliance branded Terry a 'charlatan' who was 'earning more money begging than many taxpayers do from honest, hard-work.'
He said Terry's sentence was a 'disgrace', given he had also been claiming benefits on top of his illegal income.
The court heard that Section 3 of the Vagrancy Act 1824 no longer gives magistrates the right to imprison beggars.
According to figures from the Office of National Statistics, the average annual wage for full-time employees rose by 2.6 per cent to £25,800 in the year to September 2009.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308039/Beggar-boasts-27-560-income.html#ixzz0yIjbp4Rg