For a supermodel, the sentence almost amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

Naomi Campbell, fresh from the catwalks of Paris and Milan, will trade her designer dresses for an orange safety vest this month when she carries out the community service ordered by a New York court as punishment for throwing a crystal-encrusted mobile phone at her maid.

Campbell will have to spend five days mopping the floors of a garage for dustbin lorries on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a law enforcement official told The Times yesterday.

She has been advised to wear a pair of workboots because of all the broken glass.

Campbell admitted reckless assault in January after hurling the phone at a maid at her flat on the ritzy Park Avenue.

The notoriously short-tempered model, who has repeatedly been accused of abusing staff, flew into a tantrum when the maid could not find a pair of jeans she wanted to wear on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Campbell insists that she did not intend to hit the maid, Ana Scolavino. But the phone left a gash that needed four stitches.

Campbell pleaded guilty to a reduced charge and issued a public apology to Ms Scolavino. “I accepted responsibility and I’m prepared to take my punishment,” she said. It was her first criminal conviction, although a Canadian court gave her an absolute discharge after she admitted threatening to throw an assistant out of a moving car. She also agreed to attend anger management classes.

Campbell was recently reported to have settled a claim by an actress friend in Italy who claimed that the model beat her up in an hotel in Rome. She still faces legal action by another former employee, Amanda Brack, who alleges that the British model verbally and physically abused her.

During months of negotiation with New York prosecutors, Campbell’s lawyer insisted that she would not agree to “do a Boy George”. When he was ordered to sweep the streets he turned up for community service surrounded by photographers and television cameramen.

At the judge’s recommendation, however, Campbell will not be required to sweep the streets. Instead, she will be allowed to stay inside the massive warehouse out of public view.

Campbell is also booked to spend two days in anger-management classes, although she cancelled two previous appointments.

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