Wells police in crackdown on 'aggressive begging'

Beggars in Wells who intimidate people into giving money will be subjected to a new crackdown, police have said.

It follows some businesses claiming their customers had been left frightened by beggars behaving in an "anti-social" and "aggressive" manner.

Insp Mark Nicholson said the force had received reports some victims had been sworn at or verbally abused.

"If people are reporting aggressive incidents we want to know about it so we can deal with it," he said.

"Wells is a very popular town for visitors and because a lot of people come here it does attract an element of beggars.

"Begging is an offence under the Vagrancy Act and we do take it seriously... it comes under the remit of anti-social behaviour which is one of the force's priorities."

He added: "All anti-social behaviour is investigated to a gold standard so we will be looking very seriously at the matter."