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A senior judge today warned that it was “not uncommon” for middle aged women in Tottenham to carry weapons as he threw out an appeal by a fare-dodger over the use of controversial police and search powers.

Lord Justice Maurice Kay said the Met had been entitled to search Ann Juliette Roberts because of escalating gang violence and intelligence that firearms were being moved in the area.

The 39-year-old was frisked using Section 60 powers - which allow stop and search to be carried out without suspicion in a specified area in which violence is likely - after being caught travelling on a bus without paying.

She gave a false name and address to a ticket inspector and refused to open her handbag, while clutching it tightly, when a police officer arrived and asked her to produce identity documents.

Ms Roberts claimed that the subsequent search carried out by the officer was a breach of human rights legislation protecting her liberty and private life and preventing discrimination against black people.

But in a Court of Appeal ruling rejecting her claim, the judge said that Section 60, while a “proper subject for debate elsewhere”, had been legitimately deployed by the Met when the search took place.

He said that the search, conducted in September 2010, had been conducted a time of rising gang violence and followed five new intelligence reports that firearms movements and further violence were likely that day.

He said that the area was also regarded as a “hot spot for violence” where people carried knives and that the officer, Pc Reid, had suspected from her conduct that Ms Roberts might be carrying a weapon.

The judge added: “It was not uncommon for middle-aged women to carry such weapons in that area. Indeed Pc Reid had been involved in a search of a woman of similar age earlier that day and that woman had been arrested for possession of a firearm and an offensive weapon (CS gas).”

The judge said that although he was “sensitive” to the fact that stop and search powers attracted criticism from ethnic minority communities this did not mean that there were legal grounds in Ms Roberts’ case for challenging their use.

The Met has warned previously that girls and women are sometimes used by gang leaders to carry weapons in a bid to avoid detection and the lengthy prison sentences that can result from being caught in possession of knives or guns.