SINGER Casey Arman claims she has been dropped by her record company because she is too fat.

She was told by President Records that her contract wasn't being renewed.

This happened after she put on a stone and a half in weight and Casey, 20, claims she has become a victim of the music industry's obsession with looks and image.

But the record company says she was simply not selling enough records.

Casey, of Cheney Manor Road, Swindon, said she received comments from record company staff about her weight. At one stage an agent told her she was "looking a bit chunky".

She said: "If I took it the wrong way it could have made me really ill.

"My voice hasn't changed. I could have gone off the rails but I took it on the chin."

The singer, whose first single Take Me To The Edge shot to the top of the dance charts, said the setback would not effect her music and she would make it without the record company.

Casey, who weighs 11 stone and is 5ft 5ins tall, was signed to President Records for a year. Now all she has is a contract with the smaller local company Rascal Records.

She said: "It will not effect me going out and about and singing. I have sung all my life.''

Casey's mother Pat Arman, also a singer and musician as well as being a Weight Watchers class leader, said: "I want to poke bosses at the record company in the eye. It could make a young girl turn anorexic. She is still a beautiful, pretty girl.''

Pat said the problem seemed to arise when the record company wanted Casey to do a

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video. "They said that TV always puts 10lbs on you,'' she said.

"Casey lives at home with me and I know she eats healthily because I do the cooking. The weight will drop off again and she still sings like a bird.''

Pat said that she was also disappointed in the record company's promotion of Casey.

"At one moment they were crawling all over her and next nothing, no help and it tied her up for a year,'' she said.

Casey's first single was released in May 1999 and her second, Do It, soon followed. Her voice range covers club-style dance and rhythm and blues to ballads and rock. She started singing in her mother's band when she was just 12 years old.

Her latest single Revenge Is Sweet is about to be released.

David Kassner, managing director and owner of President Records, said Casey had no future with the record company and denies that his staff commented on her weight.

He said he believed comments may have been made about her weight by television production staff while Casey was promoting her single.

"We did not renew her contract because record sales did not meet expectations,'' he said.

"We will be doing more recording with her in the future but not at this moment because there isn't the time. It is a rough tough business.''

A spokesman for Swindon-based Rascal Records said the company had no plans to drop Casey.