‘Unemployed’ benefits mum was a secret lapdancer on £150 a night
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A WOMAN received benefits worth thousands of pounds by claiming she was jobless while secretly working as a £150-a-night lapdancer, a court has heard.
Hannah Panayides, who narrowly avoided a jail sentence, was also earning £100 a day performing on a webcam porn site.
The 35-year-old worked as a lapdancer and appeared in porn movies but tricked authorities into believing she was a single mother with no job.
Panayides claimed social security benefits for two years despite also working at Diamonds And Strings lapdancing club in Watford, Hertfordshire.
On her movie profile she is described as a “tiny, buxom and shapely blonde bombshell, who began her career in the adult entertainment industry in 2007 as a presenter on an adult TV show”. She is said to have “numerous piercings and tattoos”.
Benefit fraud investigators at Watford Borough Council received a tip-off about Panayides last year and started to look into her lifestyle.
The mother of one admitted working for an online adult entertainment company Adult Work – where she could earn £100 a day.
Investigators also found that in a period of 13 months she was paid £22,000 while claiming £1,148 in council tax reductions.
Panayides was summoned to court but she failed to attend.
The case was heard in her absence at St Albans magistrates court last week and she was found guilty of fraud and fined £440.
Last year Panayides was also fined £332 for using a TV without a licence.
The Department for Work and Pensions has cancelled her claim for social security benefits between March 2015 and May last year and she will have to repay the full amount.