Paula Hamilton returns to modelling

Troubled English model Paula Hamilton has swapped her student life in Christchurch to rekindle her modelling career in Scotland.

Hamilton who shot to fame in the 1980s as the face of Volkswagen Golf, has relaunched her career as a VW girl by re-enacting her 1987 pose on the bonnet of the latest VW Golf.

The photo-shoot took place at a car dealership in Dundee.

The English celebrity had been living in Christchurch for almost four years and had been studying venture planning at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology. She was in New Zealand on a student visa which was due to expire.

Hamilton could not be contacted last night. Her mother refused to comment on her whereabouts.

Hamilton tried repeatedly to secure New Zealand residency during her sojourn in New Zealand but two drink-driving convictions did not help her cause. In September she was disqualified from driving and sentenced to 200 hours community service on her second charge.

The conviction came a day after she won $40,000 compensation from the Human Rights Review Tribunal which found The Deanery, a now defunct Christchurch alcohol and drug clinic, had breached her privacy.

Hamilton entered The Deanery in July 2000 after she came to New Zealand to escape the limelight in England and deal with her alcohol addiction.

- NZPA