TELEVISION and stage actor David Brown has been sensationally axed from Maidstone’s Christmas pantomime - just a few weeks after he was convicted of a motoring offence.

Brown, who had been due to take the lead role of Freddie Fitzwarren in this year’s production of Dick Whittington at the Hazlitt Theatre, will be replaced by Grange Hill actor Thomas Hudson.

A spokeswoman for Paul Hammond Productions, the show’s producers said: "It was a mutual decision that at this particular time it was not appropriate to present him."

The former Hollyoaks star, who played paralysed car crash victim Adam Morgan in the Channel 4 soap, lost control of his car on a road in Cheshire in August.

Although Brown denied the charge of driving without due care and attention, he was found guilty at Northwich Magistrates' Court earlier this month and was given eight penalty points and fined £1,000.

His conviction left the panto producers with “great concern” over whether the 26-year-old actor should appear in Maidstone.

They are now hoping to put the problems behind them and have secured Thomas Hudson, who plays Grange Hill bad boy Baz Wainwright.