Israeli model Bar Refaeli starts community service at disabled home

Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli arrived at a centre for disabled people east of Tel Aviv on Monday to begin serving nine months of community service for tax evasion.

A Prison Authority spokesman confirmed that she had started the community service that Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court eight days ago had sentenced her to. She is to work five days a week.

Her mother, Tzipi, arrived at dawn at the country's only women's prison of Neveh Tirza, south-east of Tel Aviv, to start her own 16-month jail sentence.

Under a plea bargain, Bar and Tzipi Refaeli must also each pay a fine of 2.5 million shekels (730,000 dollars), according to a transcript from the court verdict sent to dpa.

Both women were convicted in late July.

Refaeli failed to report millions of dollars in income during 2009 and 2012.

The 35-year-old model had said she was not predominantly based in Israel during those years, but the court found otherwise.

Her mother falsely registered her daughter's flats under different names.

Refaeli made her breakthrough in 2007 when she was the first Israeli model to adorn the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine. She is also known for her relationship with American actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The couple separated in 2011.

She co-hosted the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv.

The Alin Beit Noam foundation, to which Refaeli has been provisionally assigned, runs a daycare centre, integrated housing, sports facilities and art activities for adults with severe physical and intellectual disabilities.