Quite, aog. Now, would one homeless man reporting that he, or some other, had been robbed be national news? Sorry, but it's a hazard all the time for them in the West End, and probably elsewhere (can't say about my own area, because, if it happened, it probably wouldn't make the Cambridge paper).
It's the Daily Mail's use of it to suggest whole gangs of Romanian robbers are infesting the streets that puts the paper in a bad lighty; nothing in this unnamed, unidentified, homeless man's account is evidence. It is weaker than hearsay since he hasn't even said that anyone has said that they, personally, were the victim or witnessed it, which would be hearsay.
You know how accurate rumour is. Personally, I've always believed that hordes of Huns were raping nuns and killing the newborns, among other atrocities, all over plucky little Belgium at the start of the Great War, but later research has cast doubt on my fondly held belief.May have been a rumour, but it was one which could be used to serve a purpose.