Dan Penteado, pictured presenting BBC's Rogue Traders, admitted eight counts of benefit fraud.
BBC Rogue Traders presenter Dan Penteado has been told he might go to jail after pleading guilty to council tax and benefit fraud totalling more than £24,000.
Penteado admitted eight counts of dishonestly or knowingly claiming the benefits while not declaring he was being paid for his consumer affairs work. On Tuesday, magistrates in Bournemouth, where the 40-year-old lives, granted him bail until 17 July. They asked for a pre-sentence report on the presenter and warned him he could face prison.
A warrant for Penteado's arrest was issued last month after he failed to answer letters sent to him by the borough council or a summons from the court. He was accused of claiming benefits as a full-time student with family.
Penteado, who with co-presenter Matt Allwright has fronted programmes exposing unscrupulous traders and service providers, is a private investigator when not working for the BBC.
Kerry O'Neill, prosecuting, said the offences went back to 2007 when Penteado filled out his first claim form and failed to declare he had another bank account. He repeated the fraud in subsequent years up to 2011, the court was told.
In that time Penteado failed to tell Bournemouth council he had been paid more than £56,000 for his work on Rogue Traders from 2008 to 2011.
"He received £24,077.60 in housing and council tax benefit he was not entitled to," O'Neill said.
The court heard that the council, which brought the prosecution, would be seeking to recover all the money and Penteado had already paid back £210. No mitigation was put forward at the hearing by his solicitor, Terrence Scanlan. The Portuguese-born presenter left court without comment.
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