Begging gangs target Oxford (From The Oxford Times)
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Begging gangs target Oxford
10:30am Friday 6th August 2010 in News By Emily Allen
Sgt Claire Storry
Organised begging gangs are preying on the city’s visitors and shoppers, snatching money from people at cashpoints.
Police have confirmed they are trying to stop teams of Romanian women – often pregnant or with young children in tow – who come to Oxford to beg for money.
Dressed in peasant-like clothing they give people a sob story in broken English – claiming they need money for food and milk for their babies.
Last night, Sgt Claire Storry urged members of the public not to hand over money to the beggars who come to the city from Slough on buses and trains.
She said: “They are targeting foreign students and visitors.
“We want to raise people’s awareness and urge them not to give money to the beggars. They live in Slough and come and beg and steal stuff. They try to hassle people at cashpoints and steal money.
“Yesterday, we heard they had snatched £50 notes from two Japanese or Chinese tourists.”
Begging is an offence under the Vagrancy Act of 1824 and if officers see someone begging they can arrest them.
Sgt Storry said the beggars were generally spotted at least once a week in tourist and shopping hotspots including Queen Street, Cornmarket Street, Broad Street and High Street.
On Sunday, officers arrested three women, a 21-year-old, a 19-year-old and a 20-year-old, on suspicion of theft.
They have been bailed with a condition not to return to Oxfordshire.
Sgt Storry urged witnesses, or other victims to come forward, adding: “It is a problem all year round, they are not here every day because they alternate between different cities.
“They are well known for it all over the country.
“When people have their purses open wanting to give them money they delve into purses to take it.
“Most of them are dressed in fairly typical Romanian clothing, long flowing skirts, they have long hair and most of them tend to be quite chunky.
“They pretend they can’t speak English and sometimes they get the children to take money.
“We end up playing cat and mouse with them because they know where the CCTV cameras are.”
In a message to the public, she said: “Don’t give them any money.”
l Anyone with information about the beggars should contact police on 08458 505505 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
Comments(45)
sundance69
says...
11:29am Fri 6 Aug 10
why do people ask for spare change at cashpoints? err they dont dispense it you retards
Andrew:Oxford
says...
12:30pm Fri 6 Aug 10
digdog
says...
1:14pm Fri 6 Aug 10
Andrew:Oxford wrote:They aren't vagrants and they're certainly not charming. I used to run a shop in the city centre and one of these people assaulted a member of my staff when she tried to stop her shoplifting. Getting the police to prosecute was a major headache but the woman had a permanent address near Slough and was most certainly not homeless if the car that brought her to court was anything to go by. They really are the scum of the earth. Give me a proper homeless person anyday over these nasty pieces of work.
They are pretty patient if they take the bus from Slough to Oxford too. It takes about 3.5 hours and requires changes at High Wycombe, Henley & Wallingford. There'll be someone along in a minute to claim I'm evil for not appreciating the "charm" that vagrants bring to Oxford...
charlie dup
says...
1:42pm Fri 6 Aug 10
zorba the geek
says...
2:58pm Fri 6 Aug 10
:-)
What an ugly picture she paints.
dave from witney
says...
3:10pm Fri 6 Aug 10
Cristigo
says...
3:58pm Fri 6 Aug 10
and their criminal prone behavior is similar in similar their home countries. They obey no government laws, only their tribal law and therefore they are very difficult to integrate in the society..they refuse to send their children to schools and made a habit from stealing, robbing, bagging, extorting, etc., and the rest of the population fears and marginalize them. They live in tribes calling themselves "rromi" and they migrate in caravans from one place to another...apparently they got to UK as well and they continue their living habits here. Romanians are really sick and tired of being confounded with gypsies, based on the only fact that gypsies are born in Romania...The reality is that these groups have distorted in a very bad way the image of Romanians abroad by the way they behave..That's why this type of "on-the-spot"journal
ism is to be blamed because is promoting the same ideas, without getting to the bottom of the problem. Have the reporter check at least how a Romanian peasant traditional dressing looks like before making such affirmations?
A simple google search...
Cobb
says...
4:05pm Fri 6 Aug 10
1. Those are not romainians, those are GYPSY people with romainian passports
2. They are not dressed with "typical Romanian clothing", they are dressed in GYPSY typical clothing !
3. The romanian people asks you to catch those GYPSIES begging and punish them, they dont represent the romanian people, they represent the GYPSIES which are of an INDIAN origin !
rmarla
says...
5:07pm Fri 6 Aug 10
Your post is insulting for Romanian people. I am not sure if you have ever visited Romania, but long flowery skirts are not typically Romanian, but typically gypsy. Romanians are not gypsies, and gypsies are a minority in Romania (5% of the population), just as they are a minority in Hungary, Poland or Slovakia.
Your comment "Most of them are dressed in fairly typical Romanian clothing, long flowing skirts, they have long hair and most of them tend to be quite chunky." is insulting and not worthy to be published in a university newspaper.
A Romanian student
the wizard
says...
5:32pm Fri 6 Aug 10
simplicissimus
says...
6:13pm Fri 6 Aug 10
rmarla wrote:Endorsing your critique of the OM - not a rag that's connected to the Uni, however:
Miss Allen,
Your post is insulting for Romanian people. I am not sure if you have ever visited Romania, but long flowery skirts are not typically Romanian, but typically gypsy. Romanians are not gypsies, and gypsies are a minority in Romania (5% of the population), just as they are a minority in Hungary, Poland or Slovakia.
Your comment "Most of them are dressed in fairly typical Romanian clothing, long flowing skirts, they have long hair and most of them tend to be quite chunky." is insulting and not worthy to be published in a university newspaper.
A Romanian student
Standards of journalism and of written English in this paper are lamentable.
Also, the politics of fear that Labour fostered, mean that the unhelpful legal definition of "Travellers" makes some folk afraid to identify the actual source of a problem, such that innocents get tarred, undeservedly. These thieves are apparently Roma gypsies, clearly not Roumanians (which latter are of Latin language and culture).
Nothing much will be done to stop antisocial Romas' habits in the UK, because we have become decadently afflicted with perfidious and noxious Labour ideology, which twists the truth. Our police and elected members are often too scared or incapable.
Acelasi
says...
6:55pm Fri 6 Aug 10
“Most of them are dressed in fairly typical Romanian clothing". What are you talking about?? Their clothes have nothing in common with Romanian traditional dressing. A simple search on the internet will enlighten you.
Please take them off the streets, do whatever you find appropriate to do with them, just don't call them Romanians.
simplicissimus
says...
11:05pm Fri 6 Aug 10
http://www.bbc.co.uk
/news/world-europe-1
0892669
casal
says...
11:26pm Fri 6 Aug 10
for your information:
Roma people are not called Romanians. People from Romania are called Romanians, and they are not very happy with your mistake. Some appologies might be useful.
Thanks to my British friend who spotted your foolish mistake.
portocala1
says...
1:04am Sat 7 Aug 10
This sounds like rasism to me!
Another thing is that rroma -gypsies- are exactly like english gypsies-living on benefits, not working like most of ROMANIANS in UK.
We are paying taxes like every english citizen and we are not living on BENEFITS. We are not bugs!
dave from witney
says...
9:29am Sat 7 Aug 10
France has begun dismantling illegal Roma (Gypsy) camps following a presidential order for hundreds of such camps to be removed.
No doubt all the do=gooders from Campsfield and 'Asylum Welcome' are on their way to Calais to encourage even more scroungers over to the UK.
aniela
says...
10:48am Sat 7 Aug 10
Romanian people are not thieves, and if they go to UK they do it in order to study or work, so please some them the respect they deserve! Romania is a EU member country, same as the UK, and the large majority of its people are civilized and honest!
Lord Palmerstone
says...
12:01pm Sat 7 Aug 10
dcp
says...
12:22pm Sat 7 Aug 10
However, the image of swarms of beggars taking over our city is far from reality. Three colourfully dressed ladies, begging in Oxford once a week, it certainly isn’t a reason to panic. I agree that it’s annoying being hassled for some “spare change”, but don’t we get this already from our resident bums? Just to put things into perspective, think how many times you’ve had your bike stolen. For me it’s been three so far. Nobody’s touched my wallet yet. I think Sgt Claire Storry should look for bike thieves the other six days of the week when the Romanians are not here to beg.
The gypsies are indeed a problem, not just here, but throughout Europe. I recently visited my family in Romania and I was surprised to see how racists they all were when it came to gypsies. But that’s not surprising given all the petty crime they’re responsible for, as well as the “positive” reports papers write about Romania in the light of the modern gypsy European migration. But gypsies are special... they don’t belong to just one place or a country and modern times haven’t helped their cause. They haven’t adapted to our way of life and they insist on doing things their way. This means that it’s difficult to get them into mainstream education (many of them are illiterate) which makes the job market inaccessible. What’s left to do to survive? Begging and stealing! As long as Europe thinks this problem can be solved by sending them back to Eastern Europe, we’re far from finding a solution. They’ll be back to next day.
And to conclude, to all the frustrated Romanians posting on this site, don’t worry too much. Journalists often get things wrong. But the general population is quite open-minded, really. I’ve only been called a gypsy a couple of times. :)
walemarie
says...
12:59pm Sat 7 Aug 10
Cobb
says...
1:09pm Sat 7 Aug 10
We have all we neeed, we dont need the english "welfare".
We dont wanna be in your "commonwealth", but maybe you should take a closer look at your politics about indians and pakis !
walemarie
says...
1:25pm Sat 7 Aug 10
--such intervention like the above does no service to the cause of Romanians, or clarify the difficulty of Roma/Gypsy social issues.
Nothing entitles you to talk in the name of the "real Romanians" or to offend other groups such as British residents and citizens of Indian extract.
Your last post is simply a bad nationalist response to a bad article.
say.loure
says...
2:58pm Sat 7 Aug 10
as for the gypsies (because it's gypsies we are talking about), they are nomad and tribal ppl sticking to their own rules. the whole europe blames it on romanians that they don't integrate the gypsies, but the first thing they have in mind when faced with gypsies is how to get rid of them as fast as possible.. or should this be called 'integration'? well, try and send them to schools, give them jobs, and see how it works out.. because preaches you've been teaching enough so far.
and articles like miss allen's should definitely be penalized for their lack of professionalism.
Anafromwatton
says...
3:04pm Sat 7 Aug 10
they are gypsies! can't you see,at least on youtube,how different are gypsies clothes and romanian clothes?
Anafromwatton
says...
3:14pm Sat 7 Aug 10
They want to have a easy life,without work...
In Romania a salary is about 200-250 pounds.and you need to be qualified to can work.Gypsies don't want to work for this ammount,as time as they can get much more just begging from you,english peoples.
Stop giving them money!
Or addopt them.
Universal Traveler
says...
3:38pm Sat 7 Aug 10
Lord Palmerstone
says...
5:58pm Sat 7 Aug 10
Spare us the bourgeois reactionary claptrap-please.
"but the first thing they have in mind when faced with gypsies is how to get rid of them as fast as possible."
This was tried 1943-45. I could not possibly comment on that, of course.
say.loure
says...
8:43pm Sat 7 Aug 10
that explains why you cannot comment on the previous comments, either.
like:
"deport the peasants back to Eastern Europe "
and: "Strong arm of the law useing dogs, a good old fashioned bit of bump, kick and shove, no food, no water and on the first plane out of here, handcuffed !! Passports confiscated, photo's taken, undesirable aliens !! get them out."
very much like 1943-45..
Lord Palmerstone
says...
9:09pm Sat 7 Aug 10
say.loure wrote:No, not quite, my friend. Look it up, if you will. Look under the Iron Guard, for the sake of argument.Do you live in a house? What would you do then? Am I obliged to comment on all the posts? I didn't know that. I have never been to Roumania. I am not from the extreme left. When people behave unpleasantly, as these creatures do (yes I am aware of them in court) the left says my response is "prejudiced" but since I have formed a view on information , then I am, at worst, "post-judiced", which is about the best you can find. I have informed opinions about tinkers as well, should you ask.I have no idea where Freiburg is. Is it in part of Russian Germany?
"This was tried 1943-45. I could not possibly comment on that, of course." that explains why you cannot comment on the previous comments, either. like: "deport the peasants back to Eastern Europe " and: "Strong arm of the law useing dogs, a good old fashioned bit of bump, kick and shove, no food, no water and on the first plane out of here, handcuffed !! Passports confiscated, photo's taken, undesirable aliens !! get them out." very much like 1943-45..
Same old Tories, same old politics
says...
1:53am Sun 8 Aug 10
Lord Palmerstone wrote:You're a pretentious c0ck, that's what you are.
say.loure wrote: "This was tried 1943-45. I could not possibly comment on that, of course." that explains why you cannot comment on the previous comments, either. like: "deport the peasants back to Eastern Europe " and: "Strong arm of the law useing dogs, a good old fashioned bit of bump, kick and shove, no food, no water and on the first plane out of here, handcuffed !! Passports confiscated, photo's taken, undesirable aliens !! get them out." very much like 1943-45..No, not quite, my friend. Look it up, if you will. Look under the Iron Guard, for the sake of argument.Do you live in a house? What would you do then? Am I obliged to comment on all the posts? I didn't know that. I have never been to Roumania. I am not from the extreme left. When people behave unpleasantly, as these creatures do (yes I am aware of them in court) the left says my response is "prejudiced" but since I have formed a view on information , then I am, at worst, "post-judiced", which is about the best you can find. I have informed opinions about tinkers as well, should you ask.I have no idea where Freiburg is. Is it in part of Russian Germany?
Lord Palmerstone
says...
8:53am Sun 8 Aug 10
tcct
says...
10:00am Sun 8 Aug 10
I'm wondering why don't you seclude yourself to your kitchen and stay there?
Leave journalism to those who can deal with it. No offence.
say.loure
says...
4:19pm Sun 8 Aug 10
there are tools like google for those who skipped geography lessons. and if it's russian germany, which of your clichés will be proved right(sic)?
as for your attacks, they are so lame that it makes it embarrassing to get into a proper discussion. a reasoning of the type 'all germans are nazis' and 'the jews killed jesus'.
and 'tinker' does not cover the whole semantics of 'gypsy'. for one thing, it doesn't cover the problems you are facing now over there and which romanians have been facing for a long time.
Lord Palmerstone
says...
6:36pm Sun 8 Aug 10
lindatoma
says...
8:30pm Sun 8 Aug 10
the wizard
says...
8:49am Mon 9 Aug 10
It is time to clean up this country and we should deport the undesireables back to their native lands. Other EC states are far less tolerant of them, and there is now a strong feeling that we should be the same. I really don't see as to whether they are gypsies, romanies or Rumainians, the fact that they are bordering on organised crime is enough. Get them out, and the whole object of passports being removed and photo's being taken, along with fingerprints being taken is further evidence gathering for the future to deter them from coming back. Conversely if somebody legally comes here, works and contributes via tax and NI contributions and upholds the law and is decent I have no problem with them being here, but as goes these vagrants, the sooner they are removed, the better. Cameron wants "change and fairness" so this is the change most want, and its fair to kick them out. Lets just see how "pc" he becomes over this issue.
locodogz
says...
12:26pm Mon 9 Aug 10
"If there's only one Freetown in the German speaking world then I could google it and find it. Since it's a common town name in Britain I would suppose there are several, but does it matter?"
Common town name in Britain? Found one in Glossop - perhaps you could list a few more...or are you just resorting to telling 'porky pies' to get out of a fix? Surely not.....:(
Phian
says...
5:16pm Mon 9 Aug 10
Costume has little to do with it, not all English people dress like Morris Dancers, not all Scots wear the Kilt , not all Welsh women wear tall pointy hats etc etc.
If they are Romanian that is what matters, other Romanians might not like them but don't take it out on us.
J B Blackett
says...
5:23pm Mon 9 Aug 10
zorba the geek wrote:Yes and that's just the blokes - Imagine the women !
“Most of them are dressed in fairly typical Romanian clothing, long flowing skirts, they have long hair and most of them tend to be quite chunky."
:-)
What an ugly picture she paints.
J B Blackett
says...
5:44pm Mon 9 Aug 10
.
This included not just mending kettles / pans (soldering etc) but mending and sharpening of household implements , wrought iron work , house name plates , pokerwork etc etc as well as turning their hand to digging or tending the gardens or light building work. Never saw any lucky white heather (we were surrounded by it sometimes) or pegs or fortune-telling.
.
The tinkers we knew were honest hard-working people who earned a living the best way they could whilst having the lifestyle they preferred.
.
Where have all these people gone and what's gone wrong in the UK (allegedly) ?
simplicissimus
says...
5:03am Tue 10 Aug 10
Phian wrote:Actually, NO; the issue is surely that of criminal, antisocial and parasitic behaviour - and in particular where it has become something of a cultural trait recognizably associated with any given group.
If someone has a Romanian passport, it doesn't matter what sub-category they come into or what they wear - they are Romanians.
Costume has little to do with it, not all English people dress like Morris Dancers, not all Scots wear the Kilt , not all Welsh women wear tall pointy hats etc etc.
If they are Romanian that is what matters, other Romanians might not like them but don't take it out on us.
Gradations of "better" or "worse" people are found in all groups. Where the perceived propensity of individuals is to take from society, instead of also contributing to the common good, resentment follows, often rightly.
Whether a person be a worker or on benefits; Roumanian or Roma; politician or banker; English, Scots, Welsh or Irish; gentile or Jew; Jedi, Muslim, Bahai or atheist, matters little - save insofar as any misdemeanours within a group be seen as a generic antisocial trait or bad habit.
the wizard
says...
9:31am Tue 10 Aug 10
amgard
says...
11:25am Tue 10 Aug 10
lindatoma wrote:As a Britain, I frequently feel insulted, and usually ashamed, by the British press. No matter what low-lifes or ne'er-do-wells the press reports on, I usually feel the press itself is lower down the evolutionary ladder.
"Typical Romanian costume"???? That sergent or the press, should inform themselves better before having defamatory allusions towards the Romanian people. The long flowing skirt is a typical GYPSY COSTUME and not ROMANIAN! I personally, as a Romanian feel insulted by the British press, especially by a journal that comes from such an academic place like Oxford!
sparky123456
says...
5:41pm Tue 10 Aug 10
Green123 says...
11:22am Fri 6 Aug 10