A homeless man who admitted begging in Belfast has been jailed for a week after being unable to pay a fine.
Piotr Dabrowski, 58, could not pay the £80 imposed for the offence when he appeared at the city's Magistrates Court.
The district judge refused to give him a conditional discharge saying he had two other begging convictions and that it was clear they had not deterred him.'
Source
Is this article serious?
ReplyDeleteHomeless man sent to jail for begging?
Ridiculous. How many times have I seen people begging in London, sometimes I give them money even and before I do so, I tell them look, don't use my money to buy drugs.
In London there are beggars everywhere, even on the tube and sometimes overhead trains.
Seriously though, there are people who are really down and out and they have no roof over their head or job, so what option do they have but to beg for money to live?
I think circumstances should be taken into consideration before these judges just past sentence against people.