Camden Town Hall, in Judd Street, King's Cross.

A MAN who was a convicted child sex offender in a foreign country worked as a taxi driver for Camden Council and sexually abused a child – an investigation by a council watchdog has revealed.

Criminal Records Bureau checks failed to reveal his convictions for abusing children in his homeland – and he was employed with a transport firm to drive vulnerable children to school for Camden Council.

His convictions emerged in November 2008 when a mother said he sexually abused her child.

After investigating the case, Local Government Ombudsman Dr Jane Martin found Camden Council was guilty of maladministration for the way it outsourced transport – and she ordered the Council to pay £1,200 in damages to the victim’s mum.

Dr Martin said: “The child’s mother who brought her complaint to me wanted to prevent a similar situation occurring in future.

“By doing so, she has brought important issues to wider public attention.

“This case has illustrated the importance of proper safeguards being in place when children are being transported to and from school.

“Councils must set out clearly their expectations of contractors and monitor those arrangements to make sure they are working properly.”

A spokesman for Camden Council said: “This is a tragic case and we would again like to express our apologies to the family and offer them our continued support.

“Our contractor did check that this man was cleared to work with children but unfortunately faults with the CRB system meant that his previous crimes were not recorded and his CRB checks confirmed that his record was clean.

“There is important learning here for all the agencies involved with children and we have been working with our contractors on recruitment and awareness to ensure that everyone has the tools and the confidence to flag up when things don’t seem right.

“It is right that this man has finally been brought to justice and vital that the police investigate how this happened to ensure that it can never happen again.”

Camden Council will now ensure all contractors are required to obtain references covering the five-year period prior to the commencement of work, medical clearance and an enhanced CRB disclosure.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating how the man was given clearance to live in the United Kingdom.

It is understood the man had 15 previous convictions and that he is now serving an indeterminate prison sentence for separate sexual charges he was convicted of last year.