A former Royal Shakespeare Company actor who was seriously injured when he was knocked off his motorcycle by an untraced driver has lost his claim that the Government was to blame for the level of damages he received.

In 1999, Kenneth Moore, who used the stage name Ken Dudley and had appeared in The Bill, was awarded £376,000 over the April 1995 accident - which left him with brain damage, spinal injuries and post traumatic stress - by the Motor Insurers' Bureau, which compensates the victims of negligent uninsured and untraced motorists.

Mr Moore, 40, of East Close, Middleton-on-Sea, near Bognor, was not satisfied with the amount, which was subsequently increased by an arbitrator on appeal in February 2000 to £585,000.

But, he claimed at London's High Court that he would have received another £605,000 plus interest and costs if the second of the European Directives on Motor Insurance had been properly transposed into domestic law.

The Government argued that the action should be thrown out at a preliminary stage because it had been brought outside the legal time limit.

Dismissing the case, Mr Justice Eady backed the Government's argument that the clock started ticking on the claim on the date of the accident in April 1995, rather than from the date of the arbitrator's award in February 2000 as Mr Moore contended.

He refused permission to appeal although Mr Moore can apply directly to the Court of Appeal.