A bold and professional beggar who has been banned from plying his trade on London’s streets has been arrested again after setting down in the heart of the West End.

Simon Wright, 37, from Fulham High Street, hit the headlines in may when he was caught begging outside NatWest bank near Putney station despite living in a plush £300,000 property in Fulham.

He was subsequently handed an ASBO which prevented him from entering the SW15 area (Roehampton and Putney), from begging anywhere in the capital and ordered to keep his dog muzzled.

Although he was seen outside Putney Bridge station a week later, he was not officially in SW15, so no police action was taken.

But his latest indiscretion came on Tuesday when he spotted by Westminster Council wardens outside the Empire in Leicester Square.

When approached by police, who were unaware of his real identity, he initially lied and they told him to move on.

But told of his true identity by warden Tom Walsh and of the on-going ASBOs, the officers arrested him.

Wright provoked national outcry after it was revealed that he was raking in £50,000 a year from people’s generosity and lived in the highly priced Fulham flat.

Warden Tom Walsh said: "All the wardens had been tipped off that he might be working out of Westminster after a member of the public said they thought they recognised him a few days earlier.

"So we were looking out for him and his dog. When I told the police his real name they immediately arrested him."

Remarkably less than half an hour after being released he returned to the streets and set up in nearby Coventry Street, opposite TGI Fridays.

There, within a few minutes, unsuspecting passers-by were giving him money and asking after his welfare as he lay basking in the sun.

Councillor Nickie Aiken, the council’s Cabinet Member for Community Protection, said: "It is his sheer audacity that anyone would find so galling."

Wright is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates charged with breaching his ASBO, by begging and not muzzling his dog, on July 25.