MISS England organisers last night admitted they were reviewing their own rules after it emerged Miss Oxfordshire voted for herself more than 1,000 times.

Student nurse Zoiey Smale racked up 2,013 votes from the public – who voted with text messages – to be propelled into the beauty contest’s final 15.

The 20-year-old steamed to the top of the popularity board – more than 1,000 votes ahead of her nearest rival. The competition had 54 contestants.

Last week Miss Smale said she felt “cheated” after she was beaten to the crown by Rachel Christie, the niece of former Olympic sprinter Linford Christie.

But a probe by organisers has discovered half of the votes were made late at night from Miss Smale’s own mobile phone.

Angie Beasley, director of Miss England, said: “She did vote for herself over 1,000 times.

“I think it’s about 1,013 times she voted and it cost about £1 a vote.

“This has never happened before and we were very, very shocked to hear that she had done this.

“We found out that she had been using the mobile phone that she entered the competition with, to vote for herself.

“The phone calls were very close together. It was on and off for about a month, mostly late at night.”

The organisers stressed Miss Smale, from Headington, Oxford, did not break the rules by voting for herself and 15p from every vote was donated to charity.

Ms Beasley added: “We are very disappointed with this contestant because she did not enter into the spirit of the competition.

“The public vote was for the girls to campaign in the area they live to get public support.

“It does not say anywhere in the rules you cannot vote for yourself, but we are looking into the possibility of barring people’s numbers once they have voted so many times, next year.”

Miss Christie was crowned Miss England at a glittering award ceremony, in London, despite receiving just nine public votes.

Miss Smale, who works at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital, was last night unavailable for comment.

eallen@oxfordmail.co.uk