carefull

becafefull when fishing in the burton and kendal areas boys and girls, theres groups of polish refuges fishing the longlands stretch, stantion stretch and the burton stretch taking carp, tench etc clonking them on the head for take home and causing grief.

I had a walk along the longlands stretch the other day and it looked imposible to fish due to weed ?
When you say causing grief what exactly do you mean. Are they threatening ?

thats wot i mean, i have since found out the environment people are on the case, there was also one at local pond takin fish, he was dealt with

Wiiliam, they are not refugees but workers who rightly or wrongly have a legal right to be here.

Central Europe has had a gypsy 'problem' for a long time. With the expansion of the EU, many of the gypsies have moved to the UK. Within their country of birth, they are not generally recognised as being nationals, and if you were to confuse a Polish gypsy (or Czech, Slovak, etc,)with a non gypsy - you risk upsetting a lot of people.

For instance, most Czechs do not recognise 'Czech gypsies', only 'gypsies'.

Now, I'm not saying its right, and it is racist. But it is a fact.

In English Law the word gypsy is defined as someone predisposed to living in a caravan.

The issue with fish thefts relates to a huge influx of migrant workers from eartern europe (estimated to be 457,000 according to one paper today)following expansion of the EU. In many of these workers home countries it is normal to take coarse fish for the pot and they have been doing so here.

We should be stressing to all migrant workers on entry to the UK that this is not normal in this country and that they need the express permission of the owner of a water before taking any fish for the pot.

If you are convicted of theft as a migrant worker e.g. stealing fish there is a good chance you will be sent back to your country of origin. Unfortunately the authorities in this country are slow or unwilling to act and the problem is continuing to escalate.

The legal definition[1] of a Gypsy is persons of nomadic habit of life, whatever their raceor origin, excluding members of an organised group of travelling showmen or personengaged in travelling circuses travelling together as such. This was clarified in the case ofR v South Hams ex parte Gibbs as persons who wander or travel for the purpose of makingor seeking their livelihood (not persons who move from place to place without anyconnection between their movements and their means of livelihood). Thus the legaldefinition is explicitly concerned with habitual lifestyle rather than ethnicity, and mayinclude both born Gypsies or Travellers and elective Travellers such as the so-calledNew (Age) Travellers, once a sufficient nomadic habit of life has been established.

Alongside the legal definition, there is an ethnic definition of a Gypsy or Traveller. EthnicGypsies are first recorded in Britain around the year 1500. Romany Gypsies were acceptedas an ethnic group for race relations legislation in 1989. Irish Travellers have a distinctindigenous origin and have travelled in England since the nineteenth century. IrishTravellers were accepted as an ethnic group for race relations legislation in August 2000.

For this research a definition has been adopted which includes all ethnic Gypsies andTravellers plus members of the settled community who have adopted a travelling lifestyle.This is not intended as a political statement, but as a pragmatic recognition thatnomadism or semi-nomadism presents certain common accommodation issues regardless ofwho is adopting that pattern of life.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1153519

Does it matter what they are called?
"They" are nicking our fish and it has to stop.
Lets hope they don't discover how good eels taste!
Well done again Andy, brilliant!

Reet, having sorted out a definition ...

Of course its wrong to steal fish, and any Polish angler will know that. They will also know that they need a licence. The penalties for fishing without a licence in most 'Eastern European' countries are far more stricter and expensive than in the UK. Here, in Czech, if you are caught with carp in your net - its a 2,000 Euro fine. Kit is always confiscated, no argument. And if the bailiff has a problem, the police will rush to his aid. An advantage of having 'nationalised' waters, I guess.

The Gypsy (or, Roma, as they are known here), are well known for fishing without a licence, and breaking all the rules.

sorry if this upsets any one, but im not bothered if there refugees, migrant workers the point of this thread was to warn people that in these areas, what was going on and to be carefull, your saftey was all i had in mind, edit from a dictionary.

have you seen them doing it, the problem is no one owns these fish, if they get taken to court, they will get off with it until a law is passed making it illegal to take fish

best way to deal with them THROW THEM IN THE RIVER insure you fill their pockets with stones /ROCKS that will sort them