Homeless being fined, convicted and jailed for begging and rough sleeping

VULNERABLE homeless people are being fined, convicted and jailed for begging and rough sleeping, an investigation has found.

More than 50 councils across England and Wales have public space protection orders banning behaviour including begging for food and money and sitting in a public space with a receptacle and loitering - despite guidance from the Home Office, the Guardian has reported.

The investigation found local authorities in England and Wales have doled out hundreds of fixed-penalty notices and pursued criminal convictions for "begging", "persistent and aggressive begging" and "loitering" since they were given strengthened powers to combat anti-social behaviour in 2014 by the then home secretary Theresa May, the paper said.

Under PSPOs, homeless people are banned from town centres, fined hundreds of pounds and jailed if caught repeatedly asking for money in some cases, it was reported.

Breaching a PSPO can lead to a £100 fixed penalty notice, but offenders face a summary conviction, or in some cases a CBO banning future begging - a violation of which can lead to five years in prison - and a fine of up to £1,000 for failure to pay.

Data obtained through a freedom of information request by the paper found at least 51 people had been convicted of breaching a PSPO for begging or loitering and failing to pay the fine since 2014, receiving CBOs in some cases and fines of up to £1,100, while hundreds of fixed penalty notices have been issued.

One case included a man jailed for four months for breaching a criminal behaviour order (CBO) in Gloucester for begging.

The paper claims the judge admitted: “I will be sending a man to prison for asking for food when he was hungry."

In a separate case, a man was fined £105 after a child dropped £2 in his sleeping bag.

Rosie Brighouse, a lawyer for Liberty, told the Guardian: “We warned from the start that PSPOs were far too broad and ripe for misuse by over-zealous councils wanting to sweep inconveniences off their streets."

She continued: "Now we see dozens of local authorities using them to target marginalised groups and fine people for being poor... This approach just pushes people into debt or the criminal justice system."