Santa has been given the sack less than three weeks before Christmas.

Paul-John Harris, who has been a working Father Christmas for 15 years, was given the boot after he said delays led waiting families to get angry and an elf to start screaming and collapse.

The 65-year-old, of Metcalfe Way, Newhaven, said bosses from Great Grottos told him they no longer wanted him to work at the County Mall grotto in Crawley after an incident on Saturday, where queues built up and the crowds watched on after an elf became ill.

Mr Harris told The Argus: “There were kids in the queue and the printers weren’t working so families couldn’t get their pictures.

“The photos were coming out with all their heads chopped off and it was holding everything up.

“At around 5pm they closed the queue but there were still loads of people waiting.

“Then one of the elves was taken ill and started crying.

“She came into the grotto screaming and hyperventilating.

“There was still a big crowd outside and people were getting angry.

“There was no manager around so I went outside to explain to people that one of the elves had been taken ill so there was a delay. But the manager came back and told me off.”

Mr Harris had been working at the Crawley grotto since November 21 and was due to work tomorrow until he was sacked on Monday night following the problems on Saturday.

He said he was called by a manager and told they would have to let him go because of a “complaint from a client”.

Mr Harris said: “It’s just sad. I have been Father Christmas for 15 years and I absolutely love it.

“There won’t be any chance of any more santa-ing now before Christmas.

“It’s a real shame. I used to do a lot of freelance Santa work and I had a call from an agent offering some work recently but I turned it down because of the County Mall job.

“I really enjoy being a Santa but I’ll probably have to work doing discos.”

Great Grottos did not respond to repeated requests for a comment about Mr Harris’s dismissal.