Ousted train operator Connex has apologised over claims it branded mentally ill people "nutters".

The company, which this week lost its South Central franchise to run most Sussex trains, has apologised for causing any offence during a poster advertising campaign headlined: "We're turning the Spotlight on Crime."

The poster - branded outrageous by mental health charities - reads: "Thugs, louts, nutters, vandals, rapists, muggers and hooligans. There's no point in pretending they don't exist."

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has received a complaint about the poster and Connex says it will discontinue the campaign.

Mental health charity Mind was outraged by the advert, which it said helped to "fuel the stigma heaped on the mentally ill"

Sue Baker, spokeswoman for Mind, said: "I did my own survey of mentally ill people and 29 per cent of them felt that nutter was the most offensive word used to describe people with metal health problems."

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of mental health charity Sane, said: "Sadly the word nutter is still linked with mental illness and the association with crime can only hurt people who are already coping with loneliness and the stigma mental health problems can bring."

A Connex spokesman said: "We do accept that this has caused offence and concern in some quarters. We will not be using that poster again.

"We did not mean to cause offence but we take the point made by Mind."

The spokesman pointed out that the ASA did not uphold the complaint.