People are pretending to be travellers – causing trouble for that community it doesn’t deserve.

This is according to campaigner Martin Ward who has slammed the practice he says is growing throughout Kent.

The 29-year-old, who is from an Irish Traveller background, says these “wannabes” are offensive and deepen existing discrimination.

Northfleet resident Martin hit the headlines last year when he led a protest at Glastonbury over the treatment of his community.

Romani-Gypsies and Irish Travellers are recognised ethnic groups in the UK and historically have been widely discriminated against.

Martin says these “new age travellers” do not have any Traveller or Roma heritage and shouldn’t pretend they do.

He 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.”

This can include living in caravans, mimicking the way travellers dress and choosing traditional jobs such as maintenance work.

Martin says he has witnessed them first-hand at traveller sites when working with Maidstone Council’s Gypsy and Traveller Liason Team and in town centres when out and about.

He also says he regularly hears people using slang they wrongly believed to be from his community.

In a TikTok video talking about the issue, Martin received 500,000 views and more than 500 comments agreeing with him.

“He is absolutely spot on, so many wannabes in Kent,” said one user. “It’s like a trend,” said another.

Martin says the actions of these “wannabes” are a mockery of Traveller and Gypsy traditions.

“I’m of Irish descent and I’m an Englishman – if I put a turban on my head and walked around I’d be called a racist for mocking someone else’s culture.

“So, why is it okay for them [wannabes] to do it to our culture? If you see what they are doing in the county of Kent, it is vile.”

The imitators, he claims, will pick up traditional traveller jobs like tree cutting – dumping the branches on public and private land and causing upset.

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.

“This is where the pik*y word came from and now we’re getting that phrase thrown at us.”

As well as harming the community’s reputation, these people are also taking plots on council-owned traveller sites he says.

He claims recently in Kent, a man living in a council house was moved over to a site by local authority after he was found to have been keeping horses in his home.

“These sites are very important for travellers who need these places to go to and you’ve now prevented that plot from going to who it was meant for,” said Martin.

He says spaces on these sites are needed more than ever.

“They’re meant for Gypsies and Travellers and now they are choosing to give them to other members of society.

“It just doesn’t make any sense and then our people go to the local fields in Kent because they’ve got nowhere to go.”

These actions by “new-age travellers” are insulting says Martin as they aren’t helping the community’s struggle to integrate with the rest of society.

“It upsets me to be hated so much, and no matter how much hard work we do, you’re still no good.

“It’s hard for me as a traveller to understand. If I had done something as an individual and you slander me and abuse me, I can understand. But I’ve never done anything wrong.

“My 11-year-old sister who goes to school every day and comes home with a black eye has never done anything wrong – she’s just a child who doesn’t understand why she’s getting treated this way.”

Though he agrees disruptive people can occasionally be true travellers, he doesn’t believe this is representative of the whole community.

He added: “I’m not defending the bad ones – not in any shape or form – any travellers who move onto unauthorised land and disrespect people and leave litter behind don’t deserve respect.

“In every community, you have good and bad and there’s nothing we can do about that.”

But, if people are able to shift their focus away from the few “bad ones” and “wannabes”, Martin hopes they will see the truth about the community.

“I’m English born and bred, and I love this country – I love everything about it but my people don’t respect and love me the way I do them. We need things to change.

“All we can do is put as much awareness out there as we can and hopefully, people will look at us and realise we’re really not as bad as we’re made out to be.”