UNDERCOVER police officers on a benefits crackdown found an illegal asylum seeker, a dole cheat and a man breaking the rules of his asylum support scheme all working as Big Issue sellers in York city centre.

Today police said Big Issue sellers should be banned from York unless they can prove they are genuine.

But City of York Council say a ban is unlikely because the sellers slip through a loophole in the current street trading regulations.

Officers spoke out after they found a Big Issue seller in Church Street was a failed Romanian asylum seeker who had overstayed his visa and was in the country illegally.

Another Romanian asylum seeker selling the magazine had travelled against the requirements of the asylum seekers support scheme which ordered him to remain in London.

Police said a third man, from West Yorkshire, faced legal action after he was caught twice selling the charity magazine while claiming unemployment benefit.

Acting Sergeant Rick Ball said he would like the council to tighten the rules on Big Issue sellers unless the charity can demonstrate its workers are staying within the law.

Mr Ball said: "If Big Issue sellers are breaking the law we have to ask if we want that type of person in York and consider stopping them.

"It would be a shame for that to happen but unless they can clean up their act I feel that we have got to take action."

He added that officers could not find any beggars in the city centre yesterday and he was pleased that the "message is getting through" that they are unwelcome.

Last week the Evening Press revealed how police and benefits agency staff held a two-day operation, named Operation Capstan, aimed at cracking down on beggars.

Police said the failed asylum seeker, who said he was staying in Barnsley with friends, now faced deportation, but immigration officials declined to arrest him in York.

Home Office immigration minister Beverley Hughes yesterday resigned in the aftermath of claims that Romanians were successfully applying for British visas with fake documents.

Dick Haswell, City of York Council licensing officer told the Evening Press today that a legal loophole meant sellers of periodicals and newspapers were exempt from street trading regulations.

A spokesman for the Big Issue North said an investigation has begun in to how the individuals had come to break a written agreement with the charity.

Updated: 10:42 Friday, April 02, 2004