Strip club no cure for her bad back

Forget the chiropractor.

When a work-related back injury put Christina Gamble out of work from her waitressing job in 2007, authorities said, the Quakertown woman came up with an original and unorthodox way to treat what ailed her.

She laced up her Lucite heels and started writhing and sliding around on a stripper pole.

On most nights the 43-year-old could be found stretching out her back - and, er, other areas - at C.R. Fanny's Gentleman's Club and Sports Bar, on Butler Street, in Easton.

Gamble was arrested yesterday and charged with two counts of insurance fraud and theft by deception after an investigation into a worker's-compensation claim revealed that she was working as a stripper while collecting money from an injury she allegedly suffered while working as a waitress, according to a criminal complaint released by the Attorney General's Office.

A week after Gamble started working at the Red Robin restaurant in Quakertown in 2007, she claimed she had fallen and hurt her back, according to the complaint.

She quit before her shift was over and got a job at a Target, which she also quit after working there for less than two weeks, the complaint said.

Three days later, the restaurant submitted an accident report to the insurance company, the complaint said.

It took almost a year, but in October 2008, Gamble started receiving worker's compensation and about a month later, she visited a doctor and claimed she was unable to work because standing and changing positions was difficult, according to the complaint.

After receiving a tip from an employee at the Red Robin, investigators went to the strip club, where they found Gamble working, the complaint said.

A manager at C.R. Fanny's, which boasts on its Web site applesauce and Jell-O wrestling and "frozen-thong contests," declined to comment last night on Gamble's employment.

A phone number for Gamble's home on Braxton Court in Quakertown was disconnected.

She told investigators that she became an exotic dancer because she and her husband were about "to lose everything they own," according to the complaint.

In total, the insurance company paid Gamble almost $23,000 in disability benefits and more than $4,000 in medical expenses, the complaint said.

Gamble was arraigned in Bucks County district court and released on her own recognizance. She is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on May 7.

She faces a maximum sentence of seven years in jail and a $15,000 fine for each charge, the complaint said.