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A little rainNews
FAME: Lizzy Bardsley
Lizzy on benefits charge
Paul Gallagher11/10/2004
WIFE SWAP star Lizzy Bardsley has been charged with benefits fraud.
The 31-year-old mother-of-eight, who found fame on the Channel 4 reality show, has been ordered to appear before magistrates next month.
She is accused of failing to declare a change in her circumstances, and, if convicted, could face a prison sentence.
Officials at the Department of Work and Pensions are understood to have brought the charge after investigating payments made by television companies and other media organisations.
Lizzy became a household name after she and her jobless husband Mark, 34, revealed on Wife Swap last October that they supported their family by claiming '37,500-a-year in benefits.
The couple, from Milnrow, Rochdale, have since made a number of follow-up appearances on television and in celebrity magazines.
Lizzy was a contestant on the BBC show The Weakest Link, winning the '11,800 first prize, which she donated to a cot death charity.
Topless
She also appeared on Channel 5's Back To Reality show, and was invited to give a lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, in August.
She has also given interviews on daytime TV and in newspapers and magazines, including a topless photo-shoot for the Sunday Sport newspaper.
She and her husband Mark have recently been hired for a new reality show on Channel 4, called Bed and Bardsley, in which they will run a B&B in Blackpool.
Department of Work officials had examined claims that Mark supplemented his benefits by moonlighting as a handyman, but that investigation has now been closed.
His wife has been charged after a separate investigation into her income since she became a celebrity.
Failing to declare a change in circumstances can carry a prison sentence but this usually only applies when very large sums of money are involved. In most cases, the courts will require repayment of any fraudulently claimed benefits.
Mrs Bardsley is due to appear before Rochdale magistrates on November 2.
Today she was unavailable for comment.
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