Pub row Smith's hoax past

Jan 17 2008 by Neil Atkinson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

AS the brewery moved in to try and stop Stuart Smith’s pub plans his past came to light.

Smith was involved in a TV hoax back in 1998 and claimed he netted thousands of pounds from the scam.

He and his then girlfriend, Victoria Greetham, a Huddersfield University student, tricked producers of a show called Daddy's Girl, a Channel 4 documentary about family relationships, by pretending to be father and daughter.

But their hoax was rumbled before the programme was shown.

The notoriety from the publicity about the hoax then led to TV appearances for the pair on several shows, including Who's Been Framed?, The Gloria Hunniford Show and The Best and Worst of Britain.

Self-styled hoaxer Smith was back on television as recently as Christmas.

He was on the Jeremy Kyle Show with his so-called girlfriend, when she claimed he was visiting prostitutes. He took a lie detector, which showed he was lying, then began to protest that the test was wrong.

One Huddersfield publican, who met Smith when he was involved in running bars in the town in the past, is angry that he has again hit the headlines.

He said: “On the subject of the ‘no smoking’ scam which he started in The Fleece, where he gave away free beer, I feel he is making a mockery of hard-working, genuine licensees who are law- abiding and trying to make a living.

“He will no doubt have disappeared by next week, without having to have laid out any money, not only for fines etc but for the beer he is giving away.

“Anyone caught smoking in The College Arms will be fined and any pubs believing his crusade as being right will no doubt get caught out and put their livelihoods at stake.’’