Gulf war veteran Nick Collins today vowed to continue his bid to recruit Gurkha soldiers as lorry drivers.

Former Army sergeant Mr Collins, managing director of haulage company Driving Force Logistics Ltd, in Uckfield, tried to recruit Gurkhas from Nepal as drivers to beat a shortage of truckers.

He said the recruitment crisis was because British youngsters no longer wanted to take on more traditional jobs such as lorry driving and firefighting.

But Mr Collins' plan has been scuppered by the Government, which refused to issue the Nepalese applicants with work permits, claiming there was not a shortage of drivers and that lorry driving was not a specialist skilled area of employment.

Mr Collins, 38, who was impressed with the Gurkhas' attitude towards work when he served alongside them in Kuwait during the Gulf War, said: "I've spent nine months trying to get Gurkhas across here and I'm not going to give up now.

"There's a morality issue here. I was working alongside them in Kuwait and they were taking the same risks as I was but they will not be granted a permit to work here."

He said the recruitment of Gurkhas was not cheap labour but to beat the recruitment crisis.

He said: "You can replace the word Gurkha with reliability."

Many Gurkhas hold British HGV licences and have experience of travelling on Britain's roads when employed by the Army.

The Gurkhas are recruited in their native Nepal by the Army and are paid by the Government yet are not entitled to citizenship or work permits. They can only gain the right to stay in Britain if they marry a British citizen.

Mr Collins, whose operations manager Harka Bhadur Sewa is a former Gurkha who married a British woman, began his battle in May after he advertised driving jobs for former Gurkhas in two newspapers in Kathmandu.

He received about 85 applications and his general manager Billy Ash went to Nepal for interviews.

But Mr Collins attempts to gain work permits were refused by the Government.

Mr Collins, who employs 160 drivers, is lobbying MPs in an attempt to get the ruling overturned.

Mr Collins said: "It's been long and difficult but at the end of the day I think we will succeed."

Freight Transport Association spokesman David Russell confirmed the truck industry was experiencing a shortage of drivers.

He said: "There is a shortage of drivers in the industry but we don't have exact figures."

A spokesman for the Department of Education and Employment said: "Lorry drivers are not the type of high-level specialist job which work permits would be issued for.

"Employers would be encouraged to train and recruit home grown employees."