Anthea Turner, her love rat husband and the £175,000 tax 'oversight': TV star's firm received bills in HER name for work which Grant Bovey had done 

She was television’s golden girl who fell from grace after being dubbed Princess Tippytoes by a co-presenter and posing for tacky photos at her wedding with Cadbury chocolate bars.

Now Anthea Turner’s image has been further tarnished with the revelation that she and ex-husband Grant Bovey failed to pay almost £175,000 in tax.

Although Mr Bovey, 55, did eventually hand over the cash, it was two years later. He admits he made an ‘oversight’.

Anthea Turner’s image has been further tarnished with the revelation that she and ex-husband Grant Bovey failed to pay almost £175,000 in tax

In documents seen by this newspaper, false bills were submitted to Ms Turner’s media group in her name for her ‘consultancy services’, charging £15,000 a month for nearly two years – £330,000 in total.

However, the work was actually carried out by her husband at the time, Mr Bovey, who failed to include these earnings in tax returns, and did not pay either income tax or VAT on them.

Ms Turner, 56, who divorced Mr Bovey last year after she discovered he was cheating on her with a woman 26 years his junior, did not declare the payments to HMRC either.

On £330,000 of earnings, HMRC should have been paid at least £108,960 in income tax and £66,000 in VAT. Failure to pay either tax is potentially a criminal offence called ‘cheating the public revenue’ as defined under the Theft Act 1968.

Mr Bovey, who just over a year before the first invoice was submitted was made bankrupt while his company owed £50 million to creditors, said he declared the earnings during his divorce with Ms Turner as he did not want her ‘to be left with any liabilities’.

Referring to invoices dated between September 2011 and June 2013, accountants BDO said: ‘A number... were issued to Yummi Interactive Media (YIM) for your services but under the name and VAT registration of AT [Anthea Turner]. 

An invoice in Anthea's name to Yummi Media Group

'You’ve confirmed the invoices were raised for your services, not those of AT and the money received was in respect of services to YIM.

‘We understand, these invoices were omitted from AT’s VAT return (since they are not proper to AT) and no output VAT has been declared or paid to HMRC. YIM has in turn recovered input VAT in relation to these invoices.’

BDO added that Mr Bovey would have to backdate his VAT registration, pay the VAT, any interest, ‘and a potential penalty in the region of 30 per cent of the VAT at stake’.

On the income tax, they added: ‘Grant will invoice Anthea as a sole trader for the above three sums.

‘This will neutralise Anthea’s tax position but give Grant an Income Tax exposure for those three years which he will need to record on his self-assessment tax returns.’

Mr Bovey claims he paid HMRC ‘circa £77,000’ for the unpaid VAT as well as his outstanding income tax. He added his payment to HMRC included a penalty for not declaring the income.

Ms Turner set up media groups, including Yummi Interactive, in 2010 while Mr Bovey was given a one-year ban from taking on directorships after Imagine Homes, his buy-to-let empire, went into administration with debts of £50 million.

Parent company Yummi Media sold the rights to gameshow formats and recorded a pilot of show, Revolution with Carol Vorderman.

The bill resubmitted by Bovey after the error was discovered 

The show was similar to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? but viewers could play along at home. ITV did not commission a series.

In January, Yummi Media was put into administration, owing £6.7 million to creditors.

Administrators Filippa Connor and Ruth Duncan are investigating the impact of the mis-addressed invoices.

At the time, Yummi was set-up, Mr Bovey said: ‘I’m not allowed to be a director until next March and it is something [Anthea’s] doing with a few friends.’

Last night, he added: ‘I can’t say there wasn’t an oversight because clearly there was, but Anthea and I were going through a divorce, and I did not want to leave financial aggravation on her desk. Everything has now been paid.’

A lawyer for the pair said: ‘Our clients deny, in the strongest terms, that they have committed any crime. Our clients were informed by their professional advisors how to regularise their tax position.

‘They acted immediately to ensure they were compliant with their obligations. HMRC has confirmed in writing there is no further action to be taken.’ Ms Turner found fame on Blue Peter, breakfast show GMTV and BBC’s Top Of The Pops.

However, her squeaky-clean image was shattered in 1998 after it was revealed she had been having an affair with a married family friend – Mr Bovey.

Her marriage to Bovey in 2000 further damaged her image when wedding photos of the couple posing with chocolate bars were published, leading to false accusations their nuptials had been sponsored.