APPRENTICE star Tre Azam has accepted he was guilty of benefit fraud, after losing his latest appeal against prosecution.

But the TV star, who lives in Nevill Way, Loughton, has said he will not let the latest judgement keep him down and has vowed to come back with new business ventures.

Tre, 30, who finished third in the 2007 edition of The Apprentice, was convicted in November last year of making false statements on housing and council tax benefits worth £8,686, and has now learnt he has lost his appeal against the judgement.

He told the Guardian: “I'm just very disappointed. We were just saying they manipulated the process. It was on technical grounds that I was prosecuted. We gave it a shot and I guess it didn't pay off.

“At the end of the day, if I'd been more careful and made sure everything was right I could have fixed this mess. To an extent this happened because I was in the public eye but it was down to me to be on the right side of the law, I guess I wasn't and they had to do what they had to do. It's not been a pleasant experience.”

After his performance on the Apprentice, Tre became a familiar face on TV screens, appearing on The Weakest Link and breakfast news shows.

But his career took a nosedive when Epping Forest District Council discovered, in 2008, that his father had paid bills for him while he was on benefits, and he had an undeclared back account where he deposited money.

Tre is now attempting to rebuild his business and is currently working on a mental wellbeing management system.

He said: “To be really honest, it's not been brilliant. When you get a big bill like this, your credibility is damaged and it's affected me. However, there's a lot more in the pipeline.

“It's a knockback, but it takes a lot more than this to take someone like me down.”