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Huddled in the doorway of a city shopping centre this man appears to smoke drugs in full view of passing shoppers.

As hundreds of bargain-hunters flocked to Newcastle to take advantage of the post Christmas sales these men are seemingly indulging their addiction in the warmth of Eldon Garden.

Stunned shop assistant Paul Graham snapped the disturbing image on his phone as he made his way to work on Monday.

And today as managers at the shopping centre vowed to step-up security patrols in the area, Paul told of his shock at seeing what appears to be drug abuse taking place in such a public place, in broad daylight.

The 43-year-old said: “I was really shocked to see them doing that inside the shopping centre. It must have been about 10am and they were blatantly doing it in full view. You don’t expect to see that.”

Paul was making his way to work when he came across the two men inside the entrance to Eldon Garden on Percy Street, near The Goose pub.

“I was on my way to work and as I was going up the escalator I saw them straight away in the corner of my eye,” he said. “I just thought, ‘they are up to something’. They were just standing in the corner smoking something.”

Eldon Garden’s management has now vowed to step-up security patrols in the area, but they were not aware of this particular incident.

And operations manager Dave Mains said anyone caught hanging around in the doorways would be moved on.

ALSO READ: More than 96 per cent of beggars at court in Newcastle are 'not homeless'

He said: “We regularly patrol those areas and along the front of the building and if we did see something like that we would definitely report it to the police. And anyone who was in these we would ask to move on, mainly because it’s a fire exit, we always keep them clear.

“I will look into this incident and we will step-up patrols in this area.”

Paul’s shock came just weeks after we revealed the true scale of drug-related begging in Newcastle.

In November Newcastle City Council launched a campaign urging people not to give money to Tyneside’s persistent beggars .

In a bid to educate the public so they could make an informed choice about whether or not to give money to beggars the authority teamed-up with partner agencies for its ‘No Need to Beg’ campaign.

Figures revealed by the council show that 96% of people begging on the streets of Newcastle are not in fact homeless. And while generous strangers think they are helping those in need by handing over their spare cash, addiction workers say they could in fact be making the problem worse by fuelling a drink or drug habit.

Paul said reading our coverage of the begging campaign is one of the things that prompted him to take a picture of the two strangers.

ALSO READ: How can I help the beggars who are genuinely homeless?

“I had been reading about the people that have been ripping people off,” he said.

“It was a bit intimidating. I work in the town and I see the same beggars all the time. I have got nothing against anybody, everyone has got something they rely on.

“But to see them doing it in broad daylight in a shopping centre, when there are kids walking past is shocking.”

Coun Nick Kemp, Chair of Safe Newcastle said: “Begging is a problem in the city centre and there is evidence that shoppers are being intimidated and businesses affected, We can’t force people not to give to beggars as they do it in good faith, but we want to inform them about what is really going on so they can make an informed choice.

“It’s clearly very emotive to see someone who appears very vulnerable and it’s human nature to want to help, but there is anecdotal evidence to suggest people are being brought into the city to beg.

“The generosity of the Geordie public is very well known, and that’s very attractive to them.”