I've contacted them again with the following email. Can we all stop talking about it now until I get an answer, as it's making me feel nauseous? I know I don't have to read it, but it's just so, erm, eye-opening about human nature.

Hi
Could you please have a look at this site - http://www.se23.com - about what is being said about the Big Issue seller outside Sainsbury Forest Hill.

I like this website as it is a good source for community information, but the comments about this particular seller have generated so much vitriol I feel it would be good for the Big Issue to set the record straight.

The answers people seem to need is whether this person is a registered seller, then whether someone can talk to her over her alleged malpractice.

I'd be really grateful for any comment so we can hopefully put an end to damaging (to everyone concerned) speculation about thievery and the 'Romanian Mafia' connections they are alleging.

Thank you

Jon Lloyd

Sorry to bring this issue up once again but the seller is back outside Sainsbury's again today (Thursday), I requested to see her authorised
sellers badge which she pulled out a business type card from her bag which had big issue print on it I think it was for one if the local distributor with possible false details and she replyed that she was waiting for a new badge. I informed her that she is suppose to display her vendor badge and she started to argue. I informed her that she is trading Illegally and will be reported to the police who does not seen intrerested and also the Big Issue office and are awaiting for they reply. Spoke to the security at Sainsbury's she is not they on a daily basis as I been informed by a friend that she could have another pitch outside Morrison's in Sydenham I have attached a conduct of code for Big Seller sellers.

You are brave , I am surprised her minder did not intervene.

This fiasco has been going on for years. Because I object to money meant for charity being stolen I have been attacked on this site and called all names under the sun.
I cannot abide chariries being ripped of.

Thanks for you help in trying to get a reply from BI ,but these people seem to be completely un interested as to who is securing money under their name.

I've still had no reply from the Big Issue.

Then they came for the Big Issue sellers,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Big Issue seller.

Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

chant slightly rythymically at a bouncy fast pace with a nasal Mancunian accent. Altogether now, after me:

Sit right down - write a letter to the Sun
Say... "Bring back hangin' for everyone"

The took my advice - they brought it back
National costume was all-over-black
There were corpses in the avenues and cul-de-sacs
Piled up neatly in six-man stacks
Hanging from the traffic lights and specially made racks
They'd hang you for incontinence and fiddling your tax
Failure to hang yourself justified the axe
A deedely dee, a deedely dum
Looks like they brought back hangin' for everyone

BD, back and on form

For those of you with as little rhythm or imagination as me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYQpylvKJ5M

Nice prose BD but this is surely a serious subject when illegal/criminal action concerned.

Call the police then. You'll find that law enforcement is carried out by them in this country rather than vigilante groups. Unless of course you consider that there is some civil action you can take.

Which reminds me of the 2002 election poster from the CONservative party - "you've payed your tax, so where are the police?"

Had they not realised that they had split rather acrimoniously around 1986? Of course later reunited as is the fashion

BD, first port of call should be the group that supports them i.e. The Big Issue. Is it a police matter? Possibly, but then there are more pressing things for the police to be doing.

Back to The Big Issue then.

There are more pressing things for us to be discussing.

Like the weather.

Someone should print this thread off and hand it to her.

its simple if you don't want to buy a copy of the Big Issue from this girl you don't have to, we all have the choice, there are plenty of other ways to support homeless charities if you have concerns, quite legitimately, about where your money is going.
Did anyone see the article by Tanya Gold in the Sunday Times last week? about North London "liberals with a conscience"??
are we going that way in "Sarf London" now we are linking up with North London via the ELL extension next month???

I do contribute to many wothwhile charities. The whole point here is the legality of begging with menances.
So your argument Dylan is if you see a suspicious person lurking outside your neighbours house you ignore it.

Brian I don't think she is a genuine Big Issue seller which is why I don't engage with her I certainly do not wish to contribute to the trafficking of young girls so they can sit on the cold London streets day after day to make their Gangmasters wealthy! I am not going to come all over "Primrose Hill North London liberal with a social conscience" about it I will stick to South London common sense.

Dylan
If you are correct then all the more resaon for the people in charge of The BI to get involved.
Frankly I despair of that organisation. I am afraid genuine BI sellars have been tarred with the same brush. There are plenty of honest charities out there.

Oh dear! Some of these comments are rather outlandish. Surely you are casting aspersions upon a couple of people without actually arming yourselves with facts. Trafficking? Begging with menaces? Really!

Carob36, please re read the thread. A number of people have been asked for money by the BI sellers which is against BI policy.

Just because they say they are a charity does not always mean they are.

I would hope that by giving to genuine charity cases we can assist them however in this case questions have been asked and no answers yet recieved.

My charity to them stopped when I saw the elder lady with her "minder" at Sainsburys in Sydenham getting into a 5 series BMW.

Make you own conclusions.

Yes, carob26, please do re-read this thread. You might also, if you have several weeks in which you have no other plans, to re-read the 11 pages - THE 11 PAGES! - which have also previously been spent by users of this forum discussing a foreign lady selling a magazine outside Sainsbury's.

http://www.se23.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=135&page=1

The words better...things...to...do...with...your... & time...

..spriing to mind.