The boss of a Shipley model agency today said he would stand by a teenager at the centre of a national television hoax.

Clive Crowther, a photographer who owns and runs Clairemont Modelling Agency, says 19-year-old Victoria Greetham is still on his books.

He defended the law student saying: "She is a nice girl who just wanted a bit of publicity and to get herself on the television. We didn't put her up to this. I think the hoax started out as a bit of fun, it wasn't done with any malicious intent."

Miss Greetham, from Huddersfield, hit the headlines after duping television producers by passing off her boyfriend as her father for a documentary on family relationships.

Independent Blast! Films, which was commissioned by Channel 4 to make the documentary about the bond between fathers and daughters, contacted the Shipley model agency earlier this year.

Mr Crowther said: "They asked me if we had any girls who did lingerie work, who would be willing to take part in the programme. I sent them three or four pictures and they chose Victoria.

"They came along to the studio to do some filming of me doing a photo-shoot with Victoria. When she arrived the television people introduced me to her 'father'. I thought nothing of it - he looked the part."

But furious Channel 4 bosses were forced to pull 'Daddy's Girl' from last night's schedules after uncovering the elaborate hoax at the last minute.

They had discovered that her 'father' was in fact her boyfriend, Stuart Smith, who had spent four months pretending to be her real dad - convincing the unsuspecting film crew he was 39 and not 29.

Mr Crowther said: "I've spoken to Victoria since and she said her father had agreed to take part in the programme, but pulled out at the last minute.

"She said it started as a joke - I think they thought they would only have to do half an hour's filming at the studio. I was fooled by it too.

"She's still on the books. She didn't get paid for appearing in the programme and I didn't receive any money."

Edmund Coulthard, of Blast! Films, said he felt "shocked and betrayed" by the hoax and angered by the deception.

Channel 4 spokesman Paul Smith said although the station had been fooled it had at least managed to unravel the plot before the programme was transmitted.

He said: "It appears to be the case that Miss Greetham did it for publicity. The film crew was there seven or eight times over a four month period, but the programme makers are not to blame in the slightest."

The film crew spent half and hour at the Clairemont Model Agency where they both posed for Mr Crowther in pyjamas.

The programme was part of a two-part series on father daughter and mother son relationships which was due to be shown last night.

But Miss Greetham's real father Geoff, director of a firm of racing tipsters in Halifax, saw a trailer for the programme and apparently faxed Channel 4 bosses to tell them the truth.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.