George Michael fans accuse Hampstead shop of exploiting their hero

UPSET fans of jailbird George Michael have accused the Hampstead shop where he crashed his 4x4 of leaving the damage on show as a publicity stunt.

The Highgate singer, whose real name is Georgios Panayiotou, is currently serving time for crashing his Range Rover into the Hampstead High Street branch of Snappy Snaps on July 4 while under the influence of cannabis and prescription drugs.

But the bashed up outside of the shop, where a cheeky rogue was quick to scribble “WHAM” in homage to the singer’s pop career, is still yet to be repaired almost three months later.

The shop insists this is because they are waiting on the insurance company but fans of Mr Michael are incredulous.

A letter signed by ‘Shelley, Anne, Ditte, Tonia, Elaine, Karen, Siobhan, Kevin, Barbara and Rachida’, sent to the Ham&High on behalf of ‘all fans of George Michael’, said: “We feel concerned that despite Mr Michael paying for the shop front to be repaired, the manager of the shop appears to be taking an extraordinary long time to get somebody to fix the damage.

“We would like to voice our concern that the manager of this particular branch is using what happened on the 4th July as a way to promote his shop.”

A spokesman for the branch said they did not wish to comment except to say they are waiting to hear from their insurers and they are trying to get the shop front fixed as quickly as possible.

He added: “We are getting it resolved. It is not being used for any publicity.”