Neighbours star Nicola Charles claims cast members tried to get her deported - BBC News
British actress Nicola Charles alleges that two co-stars contacted Australia's immigration service.
Nicola Charles (pictured in 1998) was a model and actress and is now an author

Former Neighbours actress Nicola Charles has claimed two of her cast mates once tried to get her deported back to the UK.

Charles, who played Sarah Beaumont in the soap for two stints in the 1990s and 2010s, alleges she was targeted for "taking a job from an Australian".

Her character was best known for having an affair with Dr Karl Kennedy.

Charles made the claim in her forthcoming memoir, Soap Star, which has been previewed in The Herald Sun.

Fremantle Media, which produces the long-running Australian soap, has been contacted by the BBC for a comment.

In her book, Charles alleges that she found a handwritten letter sent to the immigration department shortly after her six-month probation period on Neighbours ended in 1996, just as her contract was about to be extended.

Charles (right) was part of a love triangle on the soap

She does not name the two cast members in question.

"I did know who they were, the individuals who did it, but I thought - who goes to that length, and what have I done to be disliked that much?" she wrote, in an excerpt published in Australia on Monday.

"That experience coloured my relationships with everyone on the cast and crew, because I kind of felt nervous about trusting anyone after that."

She added: "Then my immigration lawyer told me the letter complained that a British actor had been given a full-time role on the show, thus taking a job away from an Australian.

"But the show employed me as a British actor. I was written into the show," she explained.

Charles was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. She moved to London as a teenager and then to Australia.

Her autobiography is published on Friday. She also had a fictional novel published last year, titled The Witches of Toorak.

Last week, two Aboriginal-Australian TV stars alleged they witnessed racist incidents while working on the set of Neighbours.

Shareena Clanton alleged "multiple racist traumas" during her time on the show in an Instagram post.

A day later, former Neighbours actor Meyne Wyatt said he too had experienced racism on set in a tweet.

In response to Ms Clanton's allegations, Fremantle Media said it would do more to promote inclusion.

"Neighbours strives to be a platform for diversity and inclusion on-screen and off-screen," a spokesperson for Fremantle Media told the BBC. "Our quest is always to continue to grow and develop in this area and we acknowledge that this is an evolving process."