A primary school teacher, who appeared on the Channel 4 show ‘Come Dine With Me’, has been exposed as a serial shoplifter.
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Sophie Hunter-Brown was so notorious that her photo was displayed on the staff walls of her local Asda store.
She was spotted in a repeat episode of the hit show and subsequently arrested by police for several food thefts from the Asda superstore in Aberdare, South Wales.
The 30-year-old has since been banned from every Asda in the UK.
Sophie Hunter-Brown
Despite her shoplifting spree, which she blamed on not being able to 'afford to feed herself', she avoided being struck off the teaching register following a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday.
The hearing was told that she would use self-service machines, bag up her items then put her card in but remove it just before payment was taken, between April and July 2014.
Ms Hunter-Brown claims it had been a ‘mistake’.
She was given a conditional caution after admitting theft and was made to pay Asda compensation.
At the hearing, Ms Hunter-Brown said: “It was a mistake not to check that the payments had gone through. It was the result of personal stress in my life.
“Had I been taken to a police station instead of being interviewed in the back of Asda and given time to collect my thoughts I would’ve answered differently.”
Whilst on ‘Come Dine With Me’, she hosted a dinner with a Thai full-moon beach party theme, complete with a game of living-room limbo.
She came third out of the five contestants with her menu of chili crab cakes, red Thai chicken curry and lemon and lime cheesecake with mango sorbet.
