THE ex-partner of missing mum Sarah Wallgreen faked a row on Judge Rinder to try to fund a custody battle against her.

Nerf gun fanatic Ben Lacomba, 38, pretended his then girlfriend Leanne Edwards was just a lodger who owed him £4,550 in rent.

Leanne said he persuaded her to hide their relationship from ITV bosses for the 2015 show, hoping for a payout from the programme that he could use for his custody battle with Sarah, 46, over their three kids.

But Ben’s plan backfired when Judge Rinder sided with Leanne, 30.

The childminder, of Dartford, Kent, said: “The show didn’t know we were a couple. He concocted all that up and I just went with it.

“He went out of his way to make money and it didn’t work. He was gutted because he needed that money to pay for a barrister in court.”

Leanne split from Ben in 2016 but remained friends with Sarah, who she knew from the mum-of-five’s work at a homeless hostel where Leanne was living. She last saw her days before Sarah vanished from her home in New Ash Green, Kent, on October 9.

Sarah had moved back in with Ben for the sake of their children.

Cops are treating her disappearance as a potential murder.

Ben was arrested and quizzed over Sarah’s disappearance.

He has been freed on bail and his father insists his son has done nothing wrong.

Police divers searched the River Darwent in Dartford town centre. A cop drone also flew over the site.