Happy Mondays star and former Celebrity Big Brother winner Bez has been disqualified from the celebrity edition of Bargain Hunt after he was accused of cheating.
The legendary dancer’s girlfriend Firouzeh Razavi was caught bidding on his team’s items during the show’s auction.
But Bez, who won the third series of Celebrity Big Brother, says it was an “honest error”.
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He was taking part in a special edition of the long-running daytime show, aired yesterday, to mark BBC Music Day.
The 54-year-old and teammate Happy Mondays singer Rowetta were initially declared the winners with a profit of £8 on their items.
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But after reviewing the footage, producers called the contestants back to reshoot the ending and gave victory to their opponents, Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker and Candida Doyle.
Reading from the show’s “rulebook”, host Charlie Ross said: “It is completely forbidden for friends and family members to bid on a team’s items, and it is this rule that has been broken.”
Bez said on programme: “It was a genuine error. My girlfriend thought she was helping out.”
He later told the Daily Mirror that he had asked her to bid for a 100-piece tea set that was unrelated to the show but that she got confused and made the highest bids on his goods.
“She completely misunderstood,” he said.
Firouzeh bought a horseshoe mirror and a record player that Bez’s red team had found earlier at an antiques fair.
He said: “I couldn’t believe it. I was sat there thinking, ‘Oh my God, she’s bought my mirror’.
“But it was an honest error – we never meant to cheat.
It was embarrassing having to hand over our title. I’ve ended up with all the old junk we bought.”
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However, there was some good news for Bez as he managed to keep the £8 profit his team made after TV producers failed to ask for it back.
* Bargain Hunt is on BBC1 at 12.15pm weekdays.
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