Dance Moms star Abby Lee Miller receives prison sentence for bankruptcy fraud charge

Miller was sentenced to a year and a day behind bars

The reality star Abby Lee Miller has been jailed for fraud.

Miller is the dance instructor in the hit US reality show Dance Moms, which follows a group of talented dancers and their mothers from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Miller was sentenced to a year and a day in prison by a federal judge for bankruptcy fraud and concealing money earned abroad. The 50-year-old pleaded guilty to concealing around $775,000 (approximately £600,000) in income she earned in 2012 and 2013 after filing for bankruptcy in 2010 to reorganise the Abby Lee Dance Company, which exited bankruptcy in 2013, reports Reuters.

Miller was also ordered to forfeit $120,000, which prosecutors said had been transported in foreign currency to the US from locations including the UK, without disclosure. She was also ordered to pay a $40,000 fine.

On Wednesday, Miller broke down in tears when discussing her sentence. She vowed to be a “smarter businesswoman” and denied she was intentionally trying to hide the money she brought into the US.

“I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone,” she told Good Morning America. Asked how she would cope with her time on the inside she said she would pretend she’s “shooting a movie and we’re on set and I’m there for 10 months and that’s the way it’s going to be”. She also said she wanted to learn Spanish, would read lots and start writing her next book.

Miller made a name for herself for her abrasive and no-nonsense attitude to dance teaching which often left many of her students, and their mothers, in tears on the show.

The show also launched the career of one of Miller’s former pupils Maddie Ziegler, who is now better known for being Sia’s protégé in most of her videos, who the singer found after watching the show.

A representative for Miller did not immediately respond to a request for comment.