Begging is an anti-social nuisance which can blight neighbourhoods – but the law is not powerless to deal with it. In one case, a man who persistently pestered people for hand-outs in defiance of a court order has been handed a three-month jail term.
Under the terms of an anti-social behaviour injunction, the man had been banned from loitering or approaching people with intent to beg within a prescribed area. He was subsequently imprisoned for six weeks for defying that order but that had done nothing to deter him.
Since his release, he had breached the order 19 times. He had twice been arrested, before being released on bail, and had failed to turn up for four court hearings. In jailing him for contempt, a judge noted that he had been spotted begging again just two days after his release from prison.
Pointing to the quantity and persistent nature of the breaches, the judge said that he appeared to have deliberately ignored the order and all attempts to help him mend his ways. He had shown no signs of being prepared to engage with the authorities and a custodial sentence was thus the only alternative.