MISS GREAT BRITAIN 2010 SCANDAL

MISS GREAT BRITAIN 2010 SCANDAL











The Miss Great Britain Grand Final last Saturday night
(December 4th) was rocked by a major bust-up. A series of damaging rows
between the organisers and reigning queen Sophie Gradon saw the beauty
being banned from the pageant.
>> AMY CARRIER CROWNED MISS GREAT BRITAIN 2010
The Daily Star Sunday can exclusively reveal that 65 years of
tradition were broken when Sophie failed to pass on her crown at the
ceremony in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. Former hotel worker Sophie, 25,
was snubbed after a petty row over travel expenses erupted into an ugly
feud on the social networking site Facebook. A statement on the site
from Miss GB bosses said: “Sophie Gradon will not be attending the final
on Saturday. “She has been demanding that Miss GB pay a train fine that
she incurred because she boarded the wrong train. Miss GB cannot
encourage irresponsible behaviour and will not be paying any train
fines, parking fines, library fines, etc.”
MISS GREAT BRITAIN 2010 SOPHIE GRADON

University graduate Sophie hit back, telling one Facebook user: “In
my experience, Miss GB is full of false hope and false promises. “It
shouldn’t be speculated that girls will be given such opportunities
until they actually happen. “FYI Louise – we live in a modern democracy
where freedom of speech is a treasured possession.” The exchanges have
since been deleted from the online page. Sophie – who works as a
marketing director – slammed contest organisers who she claimed wouldn’t
pay a £70 ticket fine. She said she went to London on Miss GB work and
returned to Newcastle on an earlier, more expensive train. Sophie told
the Daily Star Sunday this week: “I was absolutely disgusted to find out
it wouldn’t be paid, even though I handed the slip to the Miss GB
office – thinking it would be paid. “I got a court summons from the rail
company and now I’m being asked to pay £150. “I did so much work as
Miss Great Britain and I thought they would pay my train ticket.
Miss Great Britain spokesman Charlotte Lewis said the organisation
wanted to encourage contestants and title holders to take responsibility
for their actions. She added: “Sophie was not welcome at the Miss Great
Britain 2010 ceremony as she has created a lot of bad feelings and has
behaved in a very irresponsible way. “We believe she was being
unreasonable. We are quite determined not to pay this fine. “We will not
pay fines or parking tickets or any costs which were caused by our
girls. “We were given a quote for the cost of Sophie’s journey and we
paid that on the same day as she paid it. “As far as we know, she
couldn’t be bothered to get the right train and was feeling fine on the
day it happened.” (Daily Star, London, 12/5/2010)