The face of Maggie Defreitas was plastered everywhere 15 years ago as the Bounty bar girl and the famous "taste of paradise".

Today, she is still a bounty hunter - of sorts.

Maggie works in credit control, which means occasionally looking for people who have not paid their bills.

She said: "I try to trace people occasionally but the bulk of my work is helping them manage bills. Caring for customers is our top priority."

The former model works for Seeboard Energy in Portland Road, Hove, and has been keeping her past a secret until now.

The word was beginning to spread and colleagues would stop her in corridors asking: "Is it true?"

Maggie is now happy to go public.

In 1986 she became the face of the newly-launched red-wrapped plain chocolate bar and graced magazines and newspapers around the world.

She said: "It was a fantastic job, filming on exotic desert islands.

"I spent two weeks in Grenada in the Caribbean and probably only worked for three or four days. The rest of the time I was just lying in the sun."

So does she like Bounty bars?

"No! Well, they're all right but not my favourite."

Maggie started modelling at 22 after being spotted in a Brighton disco.

She said: "I got dragged into entering some cheesy lovely-legs competition. It all went from there really."

From local work around the city, where she has lived since she was a toddler, Maggie progressed to a top London agency, specialising in advertising and magazine work.

She appeared in department store magazines, sometimes advertising knickers and bras.

In 1985, she won a part in A View To A Kill, Roger Moore's last 007 movie, where she was in a scene as one of Grace Jones's friends.

Maggie, who lives in Hove, quit the full-time business at 30. She is now 42 but has maintained her youthful looks.

Working for Seeboard might not be as glamorous as her previous jobs but it has given Maggie something more rewarding.

She met her fianc, Darren Eldred, 28, when they were both working at Hove and they are getting married in August.

Now she has been "outed" as the former Bounty girl, Maggie is quite happy to talk of her days in the sun.

She said: "It is nice to remember it all and to talk about it. It was my ten seconds of fame."