ROUGH sleepers and conmen pretending to be homeless are “working the system” to exploit Winchester’s generosity, civic chiefs have warned.

One man is believed to make more than £100 a day by bringing a sleeping bag to the city centre and posing as a beggar, councillors were told amid warnings that the genuinely needy might be confused for fraudsters.

Rising numbers of professional beggars are coming to the city for the “Christmas rush”, one councillor said, taking advantage of services like the Trinity Centre and Winchester Churches Nightshelter, set up by charities to tackle homelessness in the late 1980s.

The Chronicle walked through the city centre at all hours last week and this week but rarely saw more than three or four people who appeared to live on the streets.

But Winchester City Council has identified 13 sleepers coming from other areas in the last few weeks, including two who have social housing outside the district.

One beggar, who asked not to be named, said: “It’s really annoying – why can’t they stay in their own towns? I’ve lived in Winchester for 20-odd years so I think that I’ve got more right than they have.

“They end up here from the prison and we’ve got some people from other towns.”

A former mayor of Winchester, Cllr Eileen Berry, blamed the “Christmas rush” on the city’s festive market and cathedral ice rink, which draws hundreds of thousands of visitors.

She said: “If you think we’ve got lots of them now, just give it another couple of weeks. We’ll be inundated with new professional beggars.

“It has been happening year on year but Winchester has become more and more affluent since we’ve got these markets. You get more footfall and there’s more visitors and tourists – it will always attract people to beg.”

An emergency meeting was held last month between police, probation and the council to tackle rough sleeping “imported” from elsewhere.

Cllr Caroline Horrill, city council portfolio holder for housing, told full council at Winchester Guildhall: “Not all of it is those who are in absolute need of a bed. We do have some people who are on holiday here and have accommodation in other districts.

“Some people are trying their best to work the system because Winchester is a generous city and others really do need our help.”

Cllr Horrill said homelessness in Winchester had not increased but rough sleeping was on the rise.

“Last year we saw an increase,” she said. “We’re hoping when the next count comes that it’s much improved.”

Winchester Business Improvement District has revived its Spare Change for Real Change scheme, encouraging people to support the homeless without giving in the street. Collection boxes can be found in shops around the city centre. It was first launched in the mid-1990s.

Rough sleepers found to have no links with Winchester are provided with plans by the council to “reconnect” them with a more suitable area.

Michele Price, manager of Winchester Churches Nightshelter, on Jewry Street, said: “Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon to see an increase in street begging in Winchester during Christmas time, due to the higher volume of people coming into the city to enjoy the festive season.

“If members of the public feel that they would like to help those who street beg, we would not recommend giving money directly to them – instead, they could offer to buy them food or a drink.”

The Trinity Centre on Durngate, which helps many poor people, did not return calls asking for comment.

City councillors were briefed on homelessness in Winchester on Tuesday night.

Southampton council bosses are looking to ban begging in certain areas, but Winchester has not considered such a measure according to the portfolio holder.

Cllr Horrill told the Chronicle: “[Homelessness] is absolutely on our agenda but we’ve had no discussions around that at all.

“Maybe in future we will have to have another conversation with everyone, but at this point I don’t think there’s anything to report.”

Yesterday the homeless people the Chronicle spoke to along Above Bar said they were angry about the beggars who were exploiting the generosity of Southampton’s residents, but still going home to a bed and a roof over the head at the end of the day.

Melissa Scott currently lives in a tent near the Polygon, having moved to the city after being evicted from a council property in Portsmouth four months ago and saying she cannot return because of personal issues.

The 48-year-old mum of two said: “It annoys me when I see people who aren’t homeless begging – they’ve got places to live, we haven’t. Some of us have got genuine problems.”