A NORTH-EAST woman who was penniless five years ago was celebrating today after she was crowned Britain’s top Avon lady – earning £250,000- a-year.

Debbie Davis, 29, and partner Dave Carter, 40, were given a Mercedes SLK and a BMW X3 respectively, after they led their team of 2,500 agents to scoop the title.

The couple, from Sunderland, have produced a £7m turnover for the cosmetics company, which is celebrating 50 years of UK sales.

Miss Davis was made redundant five years ago from her job at a printing firm and could not afford her £400 rent.

She decided to become an Avon lady, and sold an incredible £18,800-worth of goods during a three-week sales drive.

Their team’s turnover this year alone stands at £5.5m.

Agents take up to 25 per cent of the price of the goods they sell, and more ambitious staff can join Avon’s management structure by recruiting and running teams of representatives.

Miss Davis said: “I never thought at the age of 29 I would be able to say I was running my own lucrative business with my partner.”

After arriving on stage at the company’s Live Your Dream awards ceremony in Birmingham, the partners thanked their team of sellers, saying: “This is as much down to their hard work as it is ours.”

Miss Davis will now appear alongside Dragons’ Den entrepreneur Julie Meyer in an online masterclass.

She said: “I’m always hungry to learn more about how I can make my business a success, so I’m really excited about the masterclass.”