An ex Met policeman I know, had a word with a "beggar" pestering folk for change on one of the Underground stations. Turned out he was from a middle class background, lived in St.John's Wood and had three hundred quid in his pocket. Not typical I am sure. There used to be a cadaverous looking lad in Peterborough, apparently on his last legs and he would lie on an old sack all day in the city centre with an equally pathetic looking dog at his feet outside one of the bank branches. Passing him one evening at 5.30 pm, unbelievably. he suddenly sprang, literally, to his feet, clawed up his sack and with the dog in hot pursuit ran like the wind down the street! These people shame the genuine victims of hardship.
