The Derby Evening Telegraph scooped the nationals to tell the personal story of a pensioner jailed for refusing to pay her council tax, after she decided to turn to the paper she could trust.

Josephine Rooney turned down a £20,000 offer from a national Sunday paper, and instead spoke to Telegraph council reporter David Walsh hours after she was released from prison.

The 69-year-old had refused to pay her council tax bill in protest at the poor state of her street, and when she returned home she was surrounded by a press pack and a national journalist pushed his way into her house in a bid to persuade her to sign an exclusive deal.

But David and other reporters at the Telegraph had been following her fight for months, and she told the Sunday paper hack that she could not turn her "friends" down.

David told HoldtheFrontPage: "Josephine saw my face in amongst the media scrum and said 'hi David'.

"She gestured for me to follow her into the house and the journalist from the national paper told her they wanted an exclusive and said they would give her the money to fight the council.

"I'm sure she was tempted and there are a lot of things she could have spent the money on.

"I told her I couldn't offer her money, but we could offer to continue to report her story in the Telegraph in the same way we had before and would continue to support her and we could have it in tomorrow's paper."

A reporter from local TV news programme East Midlands Today, who was known to Josephine, also joined them at the house as the pensioner pondered the £20,000 offer before turning it down.

David said: "She said she could really do with the money and it was a wonderful offer but she said 'these are my friends and I can't turn them down'.

"I've got to give credit to Josephine because a lot of people, regardless of the issue, would go for the money.

"I've had a lot to do with her because it is a council tax issue and many of my colleagues have been involved since day one.

"She knows and trusts the Telegraph and she knows we wouldn't let her down."

During the interview at her home Josephine told David about her experiences in prison, the well-wisher who secured her early release by paying her bill and her determination to clean up her street.

She told him: "I still owe my council tax for this year, but I won't pay it, not unless something happens around here.

"I told the staff at the prison that they would probably see me again, and I expect they will."