Middlesbrough Mayor Ray Mallon branded a Scrooge for branding beggars "criminals"

The Mayor, who vowed to “run beggars out of town” soon after being elected, made his comments at an Executive meeting of Middlesbrough Borough Council yesterday (Tuesday, December 9).

Mr Mallon was enquiring about the progress of an ongoing clampdown on begging which has involved five Anti-Social Behaviour Orders being issued on beggars.

After being told most beggars were not in fact homeless, Mr Mallon, a former policeman, said: “No, they are not homeless. They are criminals...they diversify from crime to begging because it pays well...I know half of these people, I was locking their fathers up.”

His comments drew an angry reaction from the left-wing Teesside Solidarity Movement (TSM) who called the Mayor a “Scrooge” who was indulging in “macho posturing” and “hate speech.”

TSM organiser Lawrie Coombs, a former project worker for Nightshelter who works with homeless people, said: “Even given official figures, we know that begging has increased by 70 per cent in many areas. This is down to Government policy not criminality.”

There was plenty of online criticism of Mr Mallon’s stance.

One man, Keith Huskison, said: “I'd rather give a couple of pounds to a beggar than a charity that uses too much of the donation on advertising.”

However, others supported Mr Mallon and went further. One man, calling himself PachterStation, even branded Big Issue sellers as beggars.

Mr Mallon himself said he had been misunderstood.

He said: “Unfortunately where the subject of begging is concerned TSM have clearly misunderstood my statement in that I am talking about criminal-type beggars intimidating the public, shoplifting and affecting the economy of the town.

“I am not talking about homeless people and I do believe they are aware of this fact.”

Middlesbrough council officers believe that the town has 15 known persistent beggars who are not homeless and can “earn” up to £200 a day from their activity.