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Now, dozens of the Romanian gypsies have returned to Park Lane, turning the prestigious area back into a disheveled mess. On Friday, authorities had finally acted after fed-up families and

businesses in London complained that the presence of the travellers was making lives a misery. Met Police officers, accompanied by Romanian colleagues, swooped on the rubbish-strewn camp in

a dawn raid on Park Lane, seizing bedding and escorting the gypsies to a nearby police station. Immigration enforcement officers from the Home Office detained and quizzed 63 Roma travellers,

around half of them women. In a new tactic, they were offered a free flight home provided they left the UK immediately. Twenty accepted and were bussed to Heathrow. The raid had been one of

the biggest and most successful so far in Westminster City Council’s fight against the scourge of Roma rough sleepers. However, now it is clear the efforts of the authorities were in vain,

after dozens returned to the posh district. The travellers’ filthy camp sits opposite some of the capital’s most exclusive properties, including the Dorchester Hotel, and is strewn with

litter and a rag-bag collection of prams, supermarket carrier bags and battered suitcases. The travellers have been blamed for a surge in petty crime, begging and anti-social behaviour in

the West End. Locals claim the unwanted campers turned the area into an open sewer and harassed home owners and tourists by begging, pick-pocketing and touting prostitution. Westminster

spends about £500,000 a year on daily clean-up operations, paying to send destitute travellers home and issuing anti-social behaviour orders.