British supermodel Naomi Campbell will swap designer fashions for cleaning supplies this month when she fulfils her community service sentence, a New York court official confirmed Tuesday.

The punishment comes after the internationally known model pleaded guilty in January to a misdemeanour assault for throwing a cellphone at her housekeeper last year.

Model Naomi Campbell at the 38th NAACP Image Awards Friday, March 2, 2007, in Los Angeles.
(Reed Saxon/ Associated Press)

Beginning March 19, Campbell will serve her five-day sentence with the New York Sanitation Department. Some reports have said the runway star will clean floors indoors at one of the department's facilities in Manhattan.

"Naomi is ready to report and complete her community service, no matter where or what she is assigned," a spokesman for Campbell said recently.

The runway and high fashion model has developed a notorious reputation for losing her temper and then lashing out at her employees, including during an incident in Toronto in 2000.

Campbell is the most recent celebrity sentenced to sanitation duty in New York.

Last August, former 1980s pop icon Boy George helped clean Manhattan streets as part of his community service sentence after he pleaded guilty to falsely reporting a burglary. A large crowd of photographers and reporters gathered to capture the moment as the singer and DJ swept up leaves and gathered trash.

With files from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.