Police busted begging gangs allegedly exploiting children and disabled people for sympathy from tourists.

Undercover officers were deployed in seaside tourist town Pattaya to arrest the wandering mendicants on May 13.

Police fanned out across the city, posing as visitors before arresting seven Cambodian nationals asking money from tourists at tourist spots with heavy foot traffic.

Footage shows plainclothes cops detaining the beggars who sat on pavements with their unkempt children in tow.

Police Colonel Naphatphong Kositsuriyamanee, superintendent of the Chonburi Immigration Bureau, said the operation was launched following reports the gang were allegedly ruining Pattaya's tourism reputation.

He said: 'The group testified that most of them are Cambodians.

‘They would sit at locations with many tourists walking by to ask for money. They said they earned 300 to 500 (7 to 11 GBP) baht daily.

‘They rented a room in the Si Racha district of Chonburi and rode a share taxi to Pattaya together. Some of them have been living here for more than 10 years, and their children are even studying in Thailand.

‘We have recorded the information of each person and handed them over to the inquiry officer of Pattaya City Police Station for further legal action. They will be deported back to their home country.'

Former fishing village Pattaya became popular with American troops on 'rest and relaxation' breaks in the 1950s and 1960s when the U.S. military had bases in Thailand while fighting Communism in Vietnam. Rural families are said to have even dressed their sons as women to cash in on the gold rush.

The handful of bars in the coastal town quickly grew and it is now the world's biggest sex holiday destination, with round-the-clock prostitution and drugs - a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah rife with crime and debauchery.

Government chiefs have attempted to clean up the city but regular violence, depravity and claims of corruption continue to blight its reputation.

(1 GBP = 44.29 THB)