Posted on 06/05/2013 12:54:58 PM PDT by Olog-hai
A beggar who claimed he was homeless and hungry for years was earning £50,000-plus ($76,690+) a year and living it up in a £300,000 ($460,140) flat, a court heard.
Simon Wright, 37, sat outside a NatWest bank in his tatty clothes with his sleeping bag, his dog, and a handwritten sign telling of his plight. Generous passers-by took pity on him and regularly gave him £200 ($306.76) to £300 ($460.14) a day. After work, he went home to his smart council flat, in Fulham, west London.
The councils community safety spokesman, Councillor Jonathan Cook, said: Anyone who lives, works or shops in and around Putney High Street will be mightily relieved to see this unpleasant individual given his marching orders. He deliberately targeted people making cash withdrawals from this cash point and was extremely aggressive and abusive to anyone who refused to give him money. Many people felt frightened and intimidated by him, and there is some evidence to suggest that he used his dog to threaten and pressure people into handing over their cash.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
How would you punish this?Beggar who sat outside Natwest bank with a hungry and homeless sign raked in £300 A DAY while living in a £300,000 flat
Make him work.
Happens here more than you know.
Got a much better idea; how about cutting out the 300k homes, opening up all those spaces to young families who might actually eventually want to get a home, not to mention lowering the costs of rent and housing at the same time since you'll be removing the ‘floor’ that the council has established in rents. Eject everyone. If you feel bad about it, set up a tent city for them, see how long people will actually sit on their duffs and how many will suddenly find the ability to hunt for a job.
Punish him?
For what, excelling at capitalism?
False Advertising ?
Ability to manage money well ?
I keep telling folks that over half the ones here do this as their job. They are dropped of in the morning by a “pimp” if you will who gives them a cell phone and picked up in the evening. They split the proceeds. If they can collect more than $64 in an 8 hour day they are making out better than someone making $8/hr after you take out taxes. Homeless my ares.
Ever wonder why you don’t see them on weekends? Are they not homeless then as well. They are off just like you and I are...
Capitalism is working for money, not begging or intimidating others. His outlook is highly communistic.
Not paying taxes on his income maybe?
probably tax evasion.
Fraud is fraud. Legalize fraud and that’s like legalizing communism.
Wasn’t there a Sherlock Holmes story about this?
He deliberately targeted people making cash withdrawals from this cash point and was extremely aggressive and abusive to anyone who refused to give him money. Many people felt frightened and intimidated by him, and there is some evidence to suggest that he used his dog to threaten and pressure people into handing over their cash.
OK. Now I see why you asked that question.
Gee... he sounds just like our IRS.
My daughter in law spent about a year working as a social worker in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district setting up programs for the homeless for the Salvation Army.
She could point out each of the panhandlers along the waterfront and elsewhere who were into 6 figure incomes and who were picked up in Cadillacs at the end of a hard day of begging. These guys would fight to run others out of their “territory”.
Happens a lot more than most realize.
Explain how that is criminal.
Intimidation, perhaps.
He was working on his resume to get a government job.
I won’t give to a person on the street. I will give to an organization that provides services and helps those who want to ease back in to society, to do so.
In selected places in Seattle the bums can make up to $1,000 a day. Once they get a few thou they go on a heroin binge and end up at Harborview Medical Center.
He's 37??????
He was defrauding the welfare office if he taking taxpayer money and not reporting his earnings.
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