Cyprus beggars pretends to be sick to fraudulently obtain money from the public

Police in south Cyprus are clamping down on beggars who deceived people pretending to be sick. 

According to report by the Phileleftheros news media on Thursday, Paphos police, broke up two beggars’ rings in recent months as the move to clampdown on fraudsters pretending to need help continue.

It said that the police had taken action against ‘sham beggars’ as they were beginning to operate in the city.

In one case a man pretending to have a serious problem that made his head shake uncontrollably miraculously recovered when he was taken to the police station.

In a second case, a man was caught begging in a tourist area pretending to be seriously injured. Medical examinations showed this to be untrue.

Phileleftheros said that the beggars brought in for questioning had large sums of cash — in some cases exceeding €400.