The Wanted star Jay McGuiness was involved in a scuffle with security at a nightclub in Essex at the weekend.

The 23-year-old was reportedly thrown out of the Villa club in Epping, where bandmate Tom Parker had been making an appearance - and celebrating his girlfriend Kelsey Hardwick's birthday.

But trouble flared in the VIP area at around 1.30am on Sunday morning, according to The Mirror newspaper.

A source said: "A nearby table complained to staff and claimed Jay stole drinks and caused a fight between punters, so security attempted to remove him from the VIP area.

"He pushed back to try to get them off him, so the security thwacked him. He was knocked clean to the floor, and was dragged from the venue.

"An ambulance was called, and Tom went outside to check Jay was OK and put him in a car home.

"It was a really nasty turn of events."

The venue told the paper that CCTV footage was being checked to attempt to verify the claims that Jay had been causing trouble.

A spokesperson said: "We cannot tolerate this behaviour from anyone, celebrity or not."

However "sources close to" Jay are quoted as claiming that he had no need to steal drinks, since he and his friends were on a free tab at the club anyway.

Hope you had a great birthday misskelseyh! Lots of love from the mcguiness house! http://t.co/UPJsWpeptG

— Jay McGuiness (@JayTheWanted) March 9, 2014

Jay was on Twitter yesterday in the wake of the incident, but made no reference to it.

He wrote: "Hope you had a great birthday misskelseyh! Lots of love from the mcguiness house!

"Day off from rehearsals and it's a nice slow Sunday with friends and fam, afternoon pub and suns out. A very real paradise for me!"

Nathan Sykes recently suggested that the band won't be getting back together any time soon.