A hairdresser says she is jinxed after sewage has flooded her premises three times in four months.

Claire Wilkinson says she is hanging on to her award-winning Red Headz hairdressing business “by the skin of her teeth” after a second flood at her shop in Westgate, Shipley.

It comes only three months after she was forced to temporarily shut her business in Main Street, Bingley, after a mains sewage pipe burst, flooding the premises with faeces.

That cost the 34-year-old £13,000 and forced her to lay off two members of staff for a fortnight.

Mrs Wilkinson’s woes continued when another sewage pipe burst at the Shipley shop in January and staff were moved to Bingley. The gas and electricity were cut off after workers accidentally drilled through another mains pipe while carrying out work in the area.

Mrs Wilkinson decided to cut her losses and shut the Bingley shop permanently two weeks ago.

Now, she has been left fighting for the survival of her 11-year-old business after discovering the cellar of her Shipley shop awash with raw sewage when she opened on Friday.

“This could be the difference between me staying in business and going bust,” she said. “It is incredible the thousands of pounds I have lost in loss of business and damage costs for something that is not my responsibility.

Mrs Wilkinson said she blamed Yorkshire Water for the floods and said the Bradford-based company had admitted it was at fault. However, she had only been offered £200 in compensation so far, she said.

A Yorkshire Water spokesman said the company was investigating.

He said: “While investigations are ongoing as to the cause of this latest incident, we can confirm that the previous two incidents of sewer flooding have occurred as a result of blockages caused by items which have been put down our sewers which simply don’t belong there.

“It’s not fair for Mrs Wilkinson to have to suffer this, and on each occasion we’ve gone out of our way to support her, getting teams out to her as fast as possible to clean up the sewage and ensure that any blockages in the sewer are immediately removed.”

e-mail: marc.meneaud@telegraphandargus.co.uk