A man who asked for spare change outside a Marks & Spencer has been fined £250 after a complaint was lodged by the store's manager.
Eric McCann was found guilty of begging when customers became "fearful" of him approaching them as they left the shop.
The 47-year-old was fined under the 200-year-old law, but said he just wanted money to get a cup of tea.
He was convicted of begging under the Vagrancy Act of 1824 by Caernarfon Magistrates after he was reported for asking for spare change in Bangor, Wales.
He was not in court to discover he had been fined £50 and magistrates also ordered him to pay £250 costs and a £35 victim surcharge, NorthWalesLive reports.
But the store's boss said McCann's constant presence was unnerving for elderly customers.
Prosecutor Nicola Williams said Marks & Spencer manager Catrin Ellis said in a statement that a man would sit on a ledge outside her shop drinking alcohol on a daily basis.
Ms Ellis said M&S customers - many of them elderly - would come into her store and comment on the man's "persistence".
Some said they were becoming "fearful" of him.
On Friday January 29, Ms Ellis saw the man walking towards Poundland, opposite M&S.
By 12.42pm he was sitting on the ledge near Poundland.
Ms Ellis said: "I watched him asking people for spare change. A member of (our) staff went out to collect trolleys and (even) he was asked for spare change."
Ms Ellis said she reported the matter to North Wales Police.
The court heard that, at 1.53pm, a Police Community Support Officer approached McCann by Poundland and said he had been begging by M&S.
The prosecutor said McCann denied begging and told the PCSO: "I just want a cup of tea."
McCann was charged and advised to go back to Caernarfon. He had gone by 2.30pm that day.
He was charged under the 1824 Vagrancy Act and the Criminal Justice Act 1982 of "placing yourself in a public place, street, highway, court or passage namely Garth Road to beg or gather alms".
Chairman of the bench Mr Alwyn Ellis said the case was "proven beyond reasonable doubt".
