R&B star Lauryn Hill has been sentenced to serve three months behind bars for tax evasion.

The former Fugees frontwoman will spend a further three months under house arrest and nine months on supervised release once she is freed from federal prison.

At a hearing on Monday (05May13), a judge in Newark, New Jersey, ordered Hill to report to prison by 8 July (13), reports Tmz.com.

The ruling came just one day after Hill's lawyer confirmed the star had paid off more than $900,000 (£562,000) in tax debts and penalties.

Last year (12), the singer pleaded guilty to three charges of failing to file her tax returns between 2005 and 2007.

During the hearing, Hill handed a bizarre statement to the judge, in which she compared her situation to slavery. It read: "I was put into a system I didn't know the nature of... I'm a child of former slaves. I got into an economic paradigm and had that imposed on me.

She added, "I sold 50 million units... (and) now I'm up here paying a tax debt. If that's not likened to slavery, I don't know what is."