THE daughter of millionaire singer Sydney Devine has admitted to being a benefits cheat.

The case could be an embarrassment to the cult country and western star, who is enjoying a new wave of popularity after more than 40 years in showbusiness.

His 34-year-old daughter Karen kept claiming income support while working as an assistant at a farm park, Ayr Sheriff Court heard yesterday.

It also emerged that she has separated from her husband and he has vanished, leaving her and their two children without money.

She did not appear in the dock yesterday and had sentence deferred for six months to pay back the money.

Devine, of Park Terrace, Coylton, near Ayr, admitted making a false declaration and receiving payments between April 29 and September 2 last year. She received #471 income support while she was working at the Heads of Ayr Farm Park.

Her lawyer, Mr Peter Lockhart, said she had worked at the farm park before and had been called in while they were short-staffed.

He said: ''The whole situation just snowballed. She has never been in trouble before and she is very embarrassed.

''Her husband is from the Middle East but is thought to be in Brazil, although his present whereabouts are unknown. he doesn't receive any maintenance and is jobless. She is repaying the money from her benefits and has already repaid #80.''

Devine lives with her two sons in a council flat in Coylton, a village near Ayr.

Her 58-year-old father lives in luxury with his wife Shirley at their #300,000 mansion in Ayr's most exclusive street. His blue Mercedes was parked in his driveway yesterday alongside his wife's Mercedes.

But Mrs Devine claimed to know nothing of their only daughter's case. She said: ''I don't know anything about a court case involving Karen.''

She said Karen was not with her, and Mr Devine was not available for comment.

Mr Devine is going through one of the most fruitful phases of his long career. The singer, the youngest of eight, grew up in the Lanarkshire village of Cleland and went straight into showbusiness from school. His first television appearance took place in London when he was just 13.

Since then, apart from a brief foray into the hotel trade and an enforced rest after a heart surgery in the early 1990s when he was going to retire, Mr Devine has been an ever-present part of the Scottish entertainment industry.

The star - who has had a string of hits ranging from rock to country including Maggie, Crystal Chandelier, and his best known hit, Tiny Bubbles - had not made an album for five years before he made a country line dancing video and album in 1996.

Largely due to the phenomenal succes of this, his career has surged back again. In Glasgow. the line dance craze helped his album outsell Oasis by a ratio of two to one. The recently released follow-up went straight into the UK Top 20.

Mr Devine is such a cult star that he has been invited to the T in the Park festival near Perth this summer to play among bands a third of his age.

His daughter's case will bring further heartache to the popular singer's family, coming only weeks after his 73-year-old sister, who was like a second mother to him, died of a heart attack.