Watching the ITN News at Ten in the 1980s, viewers must have thought that the presenter Ed Mitchell had it made, especially on a salary reputed to be £100,000. But yesterday it emerged that he is sleeping rough in Hove.

The former newsreader described how he lost his home, his marriage and his television career after accumulating £250,000 of debt on 25 credit cards.

“My only assets now are a rucksack, a sleeping bag and my clothes, but I am a lot more self reliant,” he said “I have now found more freedom.” Almost unrecognisable from the authoritative figure who appeared in pinstripes alongside Carol Barnes and Alistair Stewart, the 54-year-old graduate now lives on the East Sussex seafront, not far from the £500,000 home that he used to share with his ex-wife, Judy, and their two children.

He said that he ran into a “financial brick wall” after being made redundant from his job as a presenter for the US network CNBC. He already owed £50,000 on his cards. When his earnings dried up, he signed up for more cards to keep up payments and slipped into a spiral of arrears. He ended up with 25 credit cards and used one to pay the other. He owed £16,000 to Egg, £14,000 to Halifax and £33,000 to Barclays. “I was trying to pay Peter by borrowing from Paul,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how much you pay, you never actually catch up.”

Mr Mitchell began his career at Reuters in 1974 before stints at the BBC, Sky News and ITN. “I’d sometimes wake at night screaming how was I going to pay off these debts? It was a great relief once I realised I could no longer pay off the debts,” he said. Money worries increased the pressure on his marriage and his divorce was finalised last year. Last month, he was finally made bankrupt with debts of £250,000.

Having initially slept on friends’ sofas, he turned to the streets nine months ago. Mr Mitchell, who has a degree in psychology from Durham University, fears prospective employers are put off by his impressive CV: “What does a male TV presenter do when he is made redundant?” He said that he had already applied to empty rubbish bins or sweep the streets but had so far failed to find work.

“There’s still the view that homeless people are dosser tramps,” he said. “That’s not the way it is any more. The 21st century tramp is now white collar. I’m speaking for the tens of thousands of people that are going to go through what I’ve been through.” He lives on benefits of £55 a week and sleeps on a bench near a night club.

In October, the total consumer credit lending to individuals was £222 billion and Britain’s personal debt is increasing by £1 million every four minutes. But Mr Mitchell said: “In a way I like the idea that I no longer own anything at all. I have no regrets, no complaints and cast no blame. I look at it as if it’s a blessing.

“I’m seeing a different aspect of life where I have to pare things down to the very core of what living is, which is just waking up and being alive in the morning.”

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