£100 seized from street beggar donated to foodbank in Omagh

A TOTAL of £100 forfeited by a 35-year-old man prosecuted for street begging in Omagh on the weekend before Christmas has been donated to a local foodbank, the PSNI has revealed.

Maraus Virlan (35), of no fixed abode, but originally from Romania, received a suspended prison sentence in Enniskillen Magistrates Court last week, after admitting he breached the Vagrancy Act by begging.

He also pleaded guilty to entering the UK illegally, in breach of a deportation order that had been issued in May 2018.

As well as receiving the suspended jail term, the defendant was ordered to forfeit £100 he had collected.

After the case was concluded, the PSNI Fermanagh & Omagh Facebook page confirmed that this money seized from the defendant had been passed on to Pastor Graham McElhinney, of the REACH foodbank on Lower Market Street in Omagh.

A PSNI spokesperson said, “Following the recent arrest and conviction of one person for persistent begging offences in the Omagh town area, the court ordered that £100 of the money seized from him be donated to Pastor Graham…

“This will ensure that the money donated by the people of Omagh and elsewhere will go to support the causes it was meant for.”

A police officer had told the court hearing that Virlan had already been warned about begging in Enniskillen the week before.

Then, at around 4pm on Sunday, December 19, police on patrol in Omagh town centre encountered Virlan outside The Perfume Shop on High Street.

They heard him asking members of the public for money, and noted he had a sign saying, “Merry Christmas, please help”.

The police officer told the court Virlan, who was aided in court by a Romanian interpreter, had been warned previously about begging, but had persisted. He was arrested at around 4.15pm.

The officer had initially requested that £205 seized from Virlan be forfeited to the court. However, defence solicitor Gary Black noted that £100 of this had been in coins that had been collected, and the remaining £105 in notes had been his own funds.

In response, the officer said police had previously offered Virlan accommodation at the Silverbirch Hotel in Omagh, which he had turned down.

District judge Steven Keown agreed to order Virlan to forfeit only £100 of the money seized, telling the officer that if he was suggesting the defendant was “flush with cash” he was “not buying it”.

With regard Virlan’s background, Mr Black said the defendant had travelled to Ireland via Dublin in September this year and had been working, but that work had ended, and he had travelled up to Enniskillen.

Mr Black said Virlan’s partner was still in the locality, and that they had children back in Romania. He added the defendant had already bought a return ticket back to his home country.

When the solicitor asked the court to “leave something hanging over his head”, the judge said sending him to prison could allow time for his deportation paper work to be completed.

Mr Black said he could be held instead at the immigration removal centre in Larne.

Mr Keown sentenced Virlan to a total of two months in prison, which he then suspended for one year.