A Bradford businessman has told of his anger that the police seem unable to do anything about gipsies who have parked on land surrounding his shop.

Saffee Amini runs the large Asian clothing store Damak Boutique in Westgate, Bradford.

Gipsies arrived late on Friday afternoon and blocked off his car park with their vans. They have since moved off his land but all the advice he has had from the police is to ring a solicitor or speak to the Council.

"The police are not prepared to listen. They say go and see a solicitor but who will pay the solicitor's fee?

"If someone has a problem it's the police's duty to at least listen to them but they just put the phone down."

Mr Amini said he tried speaking to the gipsies on Friday.

"They just opened their trousers and started urinating in front of me," he said.

On Sunday, however, they agreed to move off Mr Amini's land and onto land nearby believed to be owned by a company which has gone out of business.

A Bradford Council spokesman said the gipsy liaison officer was on site assessing the situation.

She said an injunction had already been taken out against one group nearby and checks were being made to see if these were the same set of gipsies.

Councillor Ian Greenwood told how he has written to John Prescott to tell him about the experiences of Bradford firms and asking for more legislative powers but has so far not had a response.

"We will do everything we can to help but we know from our own experience it will take longer than we would hope," he said.

Inspector Jeff Baker, of Bradford Central police, said: "We are monitoring them. We know it is a problem within the city. We do listen but there is very little we can do in respect of moving them on."

He said it was a civil matter because the gipsies were on private land.

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