Prince Andrew's former girlfriend, Koo Stark, will appear in court this Friday, accused of stealing a valuable painting from the home of one of her ex-boyfriends.

It's a fresh humiliation for Miss Stark, 56, who has been mired in financial difficulty since losing her home in 2008.

Following her eviction, she moved into a luxury hotel in Knightsbridge, but, in February last year, was declared bankrupt owing almost $50,000 to the hotel.

Stark allegedly took the artwork from the home of Warren Walker, the American banker who is the father of her 15-year-old daughter Tatiana. The two seperated a week before their wedding, in 1997, when Stark was heavily pregnant, and they have had a stormy relationship ever since.

Miss Stark, 56, has been summonsed to appear before Hammersmith magistrates on Friday.

It's all a far cry from the life Koo once lived as Prince Andrew's girlfriend, dating him when he returned from the Falklands conflict in 1981. He took her on holiday and she was invited to Balmoral to meet the Royal Family and marriage seemed likely, but then, a rumoured engagement was called off under pressure from the Firm after it was revealed she had appeared semi-naked in a 1976 film.