Mobile home entourage of British and Irish labourers cause disturbances in southern city of Järvenpää
|
|
|
A large group of foreign travellers has kept the police busy in the southern city of Järvenpää. The group of 40-50 people, consisting of British and Irish nationals, settled last week on the Vanhankylänniemi camping site.
The entourage has several caravans, vans, and trucks fitted with yellow licence plates.
“They live here in eight mobile homes, four to five people per vehicle. There has been plenty of action and dangerous situations as there are so many people, but now some of them have already left”, explains camping site entrepreneur Marko Rantala.
In less than a week the police have issued fines to at least five members of the group. The group members have stolen beer from local shops, fought with each other, operated vehicles under the influence, collided with parked cars, and presented false identities.
Furthermore, the group has once eaten in a local restaurant and "done a runner", leaving the establishment without paying the bill.
At least some of the men in the group have done some paving work for the locals during the daytime.
The paving work has been hawked from door to door. In Järvenpää the police have not been informed of any misconduct related to the provided services.
In Vantaa, on the other hand, at least one paving job was left unfinished when there was disagreement over the quality of the work. The men had already received a down-payment for the job.
”People should think twice whether it is such a good idea to hire foreign travellers to do odd jobs for them”, instructs Chief Inspector Pekka Heikkinen of the Central Uusimaa Police.
Besides that, the police will keep their interference with the group to the minimum.
“They are EU citizens and have the legal right to be in the country. We will intervene if there are further disturbances”, Heikkinen states.
The camping site entrepreneur, though, is considering kicking the entourage out if their conduct remains unnecessarily rowdy.
Vantaa resident Erkki Huppunen became one of the unsuspecting victims of the men from the British Isles posing as skilled paving workers.
Five men appeared at Huppunen’s address in late May, explained how they would fix his “uneven pavement” for EUR 4,750, and asked for EUR 2,000 as a down-payment.
Later, after Huppunen complained about the quality of the work, the men started behaving so aggressively that Huppunen decided to call in the police.
A list was drawn up of all the defects to be fixed, but the caravan disappeared the next day.
“Let my mistake be a lesson to others”, concludes Huppunen, who himself has worked in the building industry for 25 years. “I am used to people sticking to their word after shaking hands on it.”
Paperwork was in short supply for the job. "The printer was broken" when the time came to write a receipt for the advance payment made, and Hupponen never discovered the name of the company he was dealing with. .
A few other families in Vantaa's Kuusikko district apparently fell for the same scam.
Helsingin Sanomat
|
| 19.6.2008 - TODAY |
 Mobile home entourage of British and Irish labourers cause disturbances in southern city of Järvenpää |
|
