At the BBC, crime pays. Quite handsomely, too.

Some of the BBC’s most senior executives have been awarded pay rises of more than £100,000 in a year when the corporation has been dogged by fakery scandals and job cuts.

Jana Bennett, the Director of Vision, who was heavily criticised for her role in the “Crowngate affair” where footage of a documentary about the Queen was wrongly edited for a trailer of the programme, saw her salary rise from £433,000 to £536,000 last year, an increase of 24 per cent.

Jenny Abramsky, the outgoing head of Audio and Music, was paid £419,000 last year, a 27 per cent rise from £329,000 the previous year, according to the BBC annual report published today.

The pay increases follow a year of scandal in which the BBC was found guilty of deceiving viewers on a number of radio and television programmes ranging from Children in Need and Blue Peter to Sport Relief.