BIG FAT NO
A TRAVELLER has accused pretenders of giving his community a bad name and even taking their caravan sites.
Martin Ward, from an Irish traveller background, says "wannabes" are increasingly causing problems for him and others across Kent.
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He insisted "new age travellers" should not pretend to have Irish traveller or Roma gypsy heritage - but fears many do.
He accused them of being "offensive" and "vile" and helping encourage anti-traveller and gypsy sentiments.
Martin, 29, raised the concerns in a TikTok video which has been welcomed by many.
It has been watched more than 500,000 times while attracting over 500 comments, mostly agreeing with him.
He told how "wannabes" were mimicking the way travellers dress and living in caravans at dedicated traveller sites, KentOnline reported.
Martin, from Northgate in Kent, said: "They’re normal people in society who have no relation to a gypsy or a traveller but they choose to copy our way of life."
He also told of people taking up traditional traveller jobs such as tree-cutting but dumping branches on public and private land.
He said: "We're then tarnished with 'travellers and gypsies strike again', but we haven't - it's a different group that's doing it but they're putting the bad on us."
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And he accused incomers of taking plots on council-owned traveller sites, adding: "It just doesn't make any sense and then out people go to the local fields in Kent because they've got nowhere to go."
He also said in a YouTube interview: "As you know in Kent we have a massive majority of wannabes.
"They're not gypsy, they're not a traveller but they claim to be Gypsy, they claim to be a traveller.
"Now to me that's just an insult and a disgrace toward a traveller like me."
One commenter replied by posting: "He is absolutely spot on, so many wannabes in Kent."
Another said: "It's like a trend."
Martin has previously condemned new anti-trespass laws he said would make life feel "like prison" for his family if forced into homes.
A young woman who is a proud member of the gypsy community has criticised online trolls for fat-shaming people.
Meanwhile, earlier this month cops dropped a probe into Welsh secretary David TC Davies after he was accused of racism when seeking views on a planned traveller site.