EXCLUSIVE: Investigations editor Zak Garner-Purkis visited the squat on Park Lane that has been causing controversy due to allegations of bad behaviour.

Investigations editor headed down to Park Lane to speak to the migrant camp about allegations (Image: Jeremy Selwyn)

It was an unbelievable sight. At 9 am, with traffic whizzing along Park Lane Road in Mayfair, a woman in her 50s emerged from a tent pitched on grass.

Trundling across the road, she stopped near the £400-a-night Hilton Hotel. She paused then, in full view of the hundreds of passing cars and a busy bus stop, pulled up her skirt, squatted and defecated.

At the bare minimum, she could have hidden behind a bush or tree, there were many points of cover on offer.

But she didn’t care. There was no sense of respect or decency either for herself or the people around her.

The thing is, this wasn’t a one-off. The migrant camps, which continue to spring up on the Park Lane’s green, have regularly been occupied by individuals who behave in this way.

Other members of the Express team have seen it themselves and local councillors have been complaining about it for years.

I first encountered the Romanian group currently squatting on Park Lane back in 2024.

Occupying a near identical tent city opposite Mayfair’s private jet sales suites and £13 million houses, they told me they’d been sleeping rough in the area for generations.

The complaints then were almost identical. Defecation in the bushes, late night drinking, antisocial behaviour, abuse of local workers and organised begging.

All of those issues are bad, but it is the last one that is especially cynical.

People give money to those they believe to be in desperate need, it is an act of kindness and sympathy.

But I saw firsthand how that generosity was being manipulated.

On Wednesday morning, I saw an older man from the camp relaxing with coffee and food, smoking cigarettes and playing with his mobile phone.

At around 10am, he left carrying two big bags and a walking stick under his arm.

Before donning a pitiful expression and cupping his hands to passersby, he underwent an outfit change, swapping a new-looking flat cap for an ill-fitting beanie and a warm coat for a ragged one.

He laid his stick on the floor, huddled up under a blanket and held up a sign saying he was ‘very hungry.’

It was cynical theatre designed to generate kindness from the British public and something I saw with my own eyes wasn’t true.

Nevertheless, it is important to give people the opportunity to explain themselves.

The camp on Park Lane in Mayfair has been causing controversy in the four months its stood in place (Image: Jeremy Selwyn)

The camp dwellers denied allegations of bad behaviour and said they had the right to be there

So I approached the group and asked them to explain this behaviour.

They either denied what I’d seen with my own eyes or shouted that they had the “right” to do it.

We must remember that these situations are often more complicated than they appear on the surface.

When it comes to organised begging, those on the streets are often being controlled or exploited by someone else.

The trouble is that isn’t really being explored.

The last significant police investigation into the begging gangs controlling London’s streets was in 2010.

Since then, we’ve had sporadic prosecutions that have failed to either act as a deterrent or make any dent in the problem.

Obviously, this group comes from Romania, which creates an additional level of complexity.

But it’s not an adequate excuse for the current state of affairs.

For the past decade, the authorities’ concern has been less about discovering who benefits from the funds these beggars earn and more about managing their welfare.

Let’s be blunt. Nobody wins from that approach.

The results of the lack of action to get to the root of the problem mean Park Lane has become a public latrine, and the sympathy of the British public is exploited every day.