Brian Belo suing TOWIE bosses

'Big Brother' winner Brian Belo is suing the makers of 'The Only Way Is Essex' for £100,000 a series for stealing his idea.

The 23-year-old reality TV star claims he came up with the concept of filming an Essex version of MTV hit 'The Hills' and although he featured in the pilot with the show's stars including Mark Wright and Sam Faiers he was dropped before it became a hit on ITV.

A source said: "Brian is very sad it ended this way as Mark, Sam, Amy [Childs] and Adam [Ryan] were his friends.

"He spent two years working on an idea for an Essex version of 'The Hills'. His manager Adam is based in Liverpool and pitched the pilot to Lime Productions who are based in the city.

"They snapped it up and ITV loved the show but Brian was pushed out. First he wasn't cast but thought he might be involved in producing but he was cut out of that. Brian decided he couldn't go on reading about the show and do nothing. It was his baby."

While Brian has refused to comment for legal reasons, he uploaded the original trailer to his blog and wrote: "I worked on the idea for two years. I wrote the treatment, got the cast together and got a trailer made. I pitched it to production companies. I'm very proud of its success. I want people to know where it came from.

However, Lime Productions claim they are unaware of any legal action.

They said: "We have not received any formal complaint from Brian Belo. The format and content of the programme was created and developed by a team at Liam Pictures."