He's a pipe-smoking, Royal Navy man turned film actor, with one leg.

But Stephen Beerling is not a man to be argued with.

The Maidstone councillor hit the headlines in 2005 when he confronted would-be fraudsters, ripping a skimmer device from a cashpoint in the town's High Street.

Three years on he was back in the headlines after he helped police tackle two youths during a disturbance near his home.

The police didn’t entirely appreciate his help though: Cllr Beerling spent 12 hours in a cell, arrested for possession of an offensive weapon only to have the charge dropped later.

But behind the tough exterior there is an inspirational story to be told.

At 18 he had been halfway round the world, losing a leg a few years later after an "argument with a propeller shaft", taking on a number of civilian jobs after leaving the Royal Navy and more recently working work with Amputees in Action, an agency that supplies amputee actors to the film industry and MOD casualty training schemes – leading to a brief spell in the limelight in the 2006 box office hit, Children of Men.

Despite the challenges he’s faced, he has never sought to blame anyone for his situation.

“To me that’s almost passing the buck," he says. "Life is never easy for anyone."

Read the full interview in this week's Kent Messenger