Boy George was arrested yesterday by policemen responding to a report of a burglary at his luxury Manhattan home, made by George at 3.15am (local time).

"The call was about a possible burglary. Police arrived there, and they saw in plain view an amount of cocaine near a computer. They also recovered another larger quantity of cocaine at the location," a police spokesman said. He also mentioned there was a woman at the apartment, but did not describe her relationship to George.

"A man who calls the police has nothing to hide," said his lawyer Lou Freeman.

"He called the police believing there was a break-in," he added. "We don't know how the cocaine got there. He's a very social person. He has a lot of people in his apartment", Freeman said.

According to Manhattan District Attorney's office spokeswoman Barbara Thompson, the singer, whose real name is George O'Dowd, was released after being charged with possession of a controlled substance, allegedly more than five grams of cocaine.

Boy George came to prominence in the 1980s when Culture Club shot to chart success with Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? The classic Karma Chameleon followed and their album Colour By Numbers became famous.

His drug use resulted in him being exposed by the British tabloids as a heroin addict in 1987, but the singer recovered to pursue a career as a DJ and moved to the U.S.
George was also slammed for his on-off affair with drummer Jon Moss.

"I was an open, flamboyant, screaming homosexual, and then I'd have to switch that off for public engagements. I couldn't say that Jon and I loved each other, and that can only make life more twisted", he confessed.

"After we went to number one everything changed," the singer told The Face magazine in 1998. "Everybody recognized me. Before, people would laugh at me, as a figure of fascination, or amusement, or pity, and now fame gave me a license to be outrageous", George added.

The gay icon has been in the spotlight since, due to his statements such as declaring he preferred a cup of tea to sex or appearing on television discussion shows arguing against Section 28 - the law introduced by Margaret Thatcher's government, stopping local authorities "promoting" homosexuality - which was repealed in 2003.

His musical Taboo, which was described as an autobiographical look at a time when flamboyant cross-dressers reigned in London clubs and Culture Club topped pop charts around the world, closed in New York last year, after losing money due to mainly negative reviews.