Two nuisance beggars have been banned from entering a supermarket, a shopping precinct and several streets in Wolverhampton.

The ruling comes after they “persistently and aggressively” asked mothers with prams and elderly people for money.

Gillian Graham, aged 48, and Dennis Williams, 39, have been handed two-year anti-social behaviour orders preventing them from going to Asda in Molineux Way and the Avion Centre in Whitmore Reans.

District Judge Martin Brown told the pair they could face jail if found in the vicinity or begging anywhere else in the city.

The pair, of St Andrew’s House, Evans Street, Whitmore Reans, targeted mothers outside the city’s Asda store and hounded the elderly as they picked up their pensions at the Avion Centre, as part of a prolific campaign to get cash. 

At Wolverhampton Magistrates Court yesterday, both accepted they had caused alarm to passers-by and agreed to the orders.

Mr John Roe, in mitigation for Williams, said: “My client accepts that he approached people for money but disputes doing it an aggressive manner. He accepts it was seen as a nuisance.”

Judge Brown said: “I am satisfied that these Asbos are needed to protect the public.” Until October 2010 the pair are banned from entering the Avion shopping centre, the grounds of Asda and surrounding streets. Graham will return to the court on October 22 for breaching the terms of an interim order handed to her in August.