£23k-a-year beggar on benefits is let off with a £100 fine
A PROFESSIONAL beggar fleecing the public out of as much as £23,400 a year sparked fury yesterday after magistrates fined him just £100.
Daniel Terry, 31, dressed up as a tramp with a scruffy sleeping bag and blanket as he asked for spare change.
He gave the impression he was “helpless and homeless” but he actually lived in a house, raking in a further £80 a week in incapacity benefit.
He pleaded guilty yesterday to begging, after ignoring police warnings to stop.
But Lincoln magistrates decided to fine him £100, instead of the possible £1,000 maximum.
Prosecutor Mark Holmes said Terry was charged on August 11, after a series of warnings about his begging in Lincoln.
He said: “There’s an aggravating feature in that he had been begging for a significant period of time, about a year. During interview, Terry said he can make £40, or possibly £50, by begging on a weekday and £100 on a Saturday or Sunday.
“But he was not begging because he had nowhere to live or no money, he has a home and is receiving benefits. It’s absolutely disgraceful behaviour.”
Terry’s own admission suggests that if he begged seven days a week he could have earned £23,400 a year.
Even begging only six days a week he could see him pocketing £18,200 a year, equivalent after tax to a salary of £25,000.
The court heard he has 22 previous convictions.
Terry, who was also told to pay £40 in costs, claimed in court he stayed at friends’ houses and had no permanent address. Outside the hearing the beggar, said to suffer from the psychiatric disorder Tourette’s syndrome, said: “I do get £80 a week but that is just not enough to get by on.
“The idea that I was earning £25,000 from begging and blowing it all on drink and drugs is a joke. I just needed the money to survive.
“I was never an aggressive beggar like the ones you see clutching on to a bottle of cider. People will tell you I was polite and never gave them any hassle.
“At least I never turned to shoplifting or burgling people’s homes.”
Last night a spokeswoman for the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “It’s a disgrace that he’s only received a slap on the wrist for claiming benefits on top of his illegal income.
“Charlatans like this leave us all worse off.”