Call-girl with a 'passion for the arts'

The £1,300-a-night call-girl who cost a businessman his company, his marriage - and now possibly his freedom - advertises herself on the internet as having a penchant for fine wines and 18th-century literature.

Travel firm boss Peter Lee, 51, developed a six-year obsession for Tia-Cheyanne, taking almost £500,000 from the company to give her expensive gifts, meals and holidays, Durham Crown Court heard.

His £125,000-a-year salary could not fund his extravagant spending on her. The court also heard that he had two other mistresses.

His coach company, Durham Travel Services, went into liquidation and 100 staff in London and 14 in County Durham lost their jobs. Lee has since been divorced by his wife Ann.

Tia-Cheyanne advertises herself as a 27-year-old "London-born babe of Scottish, Portugese, Caribbean and Native American origin" with a passion for philosophy, poetry and the arts. She also claims to be "genuinely bisexual". Friends today revealed her to be mother-of-one Antoinette Cato-Phillips, who had been married to a former Household Cavalry officer.

Former model Chanel said her friend "just assumed" Lee was rich and used much of the cash to buy a £350,000 five-bedroom house in south London.

Lee admits three counts each of theft, forgery and false accounting and will be sentenced on 5 March.