A WARRANT has been issued for the arrest of Rogue Traders’ star Dan Penteado, who is wanted for alleged benefit fraud in Bournemouth.

Penteado, who is Matt Allwright’s sidekick on the Watchdog show, is accused of receiving more than £24,000 of housing and council tax benefit while working for the BBC.

The 40-year-old, of Portarlington Close in Westbourne, has not responded to letters sent to him by Bournemouth council and failed to turn up at Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court yesterday to answer the charges, despite being sent a court summons.

Prosecutor Johanne McNamara told the court: “Mr Penteado was claiming housing benefit and council tax benefit on the basis he was a full-time student with a family, he received benefit on that basis.

“Over a period of time his position has changed, he was actually employed on BBC’s Rogue Traders’ programme as a motorbike rider. There are a number of offences. Some relate to failing to disclose a bank account which his wages were paid into, others relate to failing to notify a change in his circumstances when he was hired by the BBC.”

She said his BBC wages varied from year to year. In 2008, he was paid more than £16,000 and between July 2009 to March 2010 he received more than £15,000. He then received a further £18,000 for work done between July 2010 and January 2011 and more than £6,000 for work done between May and December 2011.

Miss McNamara said he had been overpaid £24,077.60 in housing and council tax benefit that he would not have been entitled to if he had declared his BBC work.

According to the BBC website, Portuguese-born Penteado first started working with Matt Allwright in 2001 and has been an integral part of Rogue Traders and Watchdog since then.

In the last series of Rogue Traders, he and Allwright confronted eight business owners they felt were ripping-off the public across the UK.