Hoodie law used to curb litter louts, ticket touts and beggars

The police and councils are finding new ways to use dispersal orders after researchers found they led only to short-term reductions in youth crime.

The orders were introduced in 2003 to crack down on anti-social teenagers but a study found they were no more help in stopping unruly behaviour than a "sticking plaster".

Now police have chosen to focus on specific forms of anti-social behaviour and, in the past year, 73 orders were introduced. In Knightsbridge police are able to demand beggars leave the street or face a fine of up to £5,000 or prison. A spokeswoman for Kensington and Chelsea said Knightsbridge had become a "hotspot for aggressive and persistent begging".

She said: "The Safer Neighbourhoods Team has arrested more than 50 beggars in Chelsea in the past year and Asbos were obtained against certain individuals.

"But a more rigorous approach was deemed necessary and the dispersal order seemed like a good step to take." A Harrods spokesman said the scheme had "a positive effect on the comfort and safety of customers".

Another order was put in place to tackle touts who sell Wimbledon tennis tickets outside Southfields Tube. A Wandsworth council spokesman said the number of touts had dropped from 200 in 2007 to six last summer.

Other orders have been made across London to prevent drug dealing, dog fights, graffiti, misuse of fireworks, urinating in public, moped and car racing, littering and fly-tipping.

Dispersal orders have been implemented in at least 19 of the 32 London boroughs. Bromley has introduced the most this year with 13. There have been nine in Hillingdon, seven apiece in Brent and Islington and five in Waltham Forest.

Barking & Dagenham, Barnet, Greenwich, Lewisham, Sutton and Tower Hamlets have not introduced any.

They were first introduced to help police disperse groups in areas where they were likely to "harass, threaten or intimidate" the public.

But Professor Adam Crawford of the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies, who examined the efficacy of the orders, said they shifted the problem to neighbouring areas. One "displacement zone" saw crime increase by 83 per cent on the previous year.