Breast op row model handed £6k of public cash for taxis
SHE provoked outrage when she had her breasts enlarged on the NHS because her flat chest upset her.
Now aspiring glamour model Josie Cunningham is risking the wrath of taxpayers yet again for taking council-funded taxi trips worth nearly £6,000 a year – because she says she is too scared to take the bus.
The 24-year-old claims she is so hated following publicity about her breast operation that she cannot use public transport to take her two young children to and from school.
She told her GP the stress was giving her anxiety attacks and her children, aged six and three, were missing school and nursery as a result. Leeds City Council has reportedly now accepted an application for free school taxi trips on health grounds.
It means Miss Cunningham, a single mother who is five months pregnant, is receiving around £150 of free fares a week – the equivalent of £5,700 per school year.
Comparing herself to former glamour model Katie Price, she said: ‘You wouldn’t see Katie Price get a bus – and I’m much more hated than her.
‘Why should I foot the bill when it’s the public who cause me so much discomfort? They can pay for it. I
‘She is still fleecing the taxpayers’
couldn’t get a bus again. I’m too well recognised and the amount of hate I receive makes it impossible to get public transport.’
Miss Cunningham shot to notoriety last year when she had a £4,800 operation to increase her bust from size 32A to 36DD, claiming she had been bullied since she was 14 for having a flat chest.
Her operation was carried out by the same NHS trust that had refused to fund surgery that would have enabled a two-year-old girl with a form of cerebral palsy to walk.
Miss Cunningham later claimed her breasts were ‘so big’ she found them embarrassing and said the NHS should pay for a reduction. She tried to placate public opinion by promising to pay back the cash. But when she became pregnant after working as a £1,000-a-night escort, she admitted she cannot uphold her pledge.
Since last month, Miss Cunningham and her children have been driven two-and-a-half miles to and from school, twice a day. The journey would cost £30 a week by bus.
This year Leeds council is having to make savings of £50million from its budget. A spokesman said: ‘We are not able to comment on individual cases. However, the council takes matters relating to attendance at school extremely seriously.’
Miss Cunningham’s neighbours were not impressed.
A father of four, who did not want to be named, said: ‘Thousands of pounds are being wasted and there are people out there who need it.’
Yesterday, hundreds of readers posted messages on Mail Online to condemn Miss Cunningham – and Leeds council for funding her.
One said: ‘It’s just outrageous that she is still fleecing the taxpayers.’