A high-profile prostitute has been cleared of trying to dodge paying taxes on her earnings from sex.

Angela Nangle was accused of deliberately failing to pay the Treasury thousands of pounds in tax she had earned at up to £150 an hour as a sex worker.

But she walked free from court today after a jury of six men and six women agreed she had not realised she owed the money.

The jury at Hove Crown Court was told that Miss Nangle worked as an "erotic services provider" from her luxury flat on Brighton seafront.

On her website she listed her charges as £150 an hour or £600 per night and she had also taken out adverts in the press.

The court was told that the tax she owed on her earnings between 2002 and 2005 was estimated at between £7,000 and £11,000.

During the trial Customs and Revenue officers accepted that guidance manuals recognised that prostitutes still did not realise their earnings are liable to tax.