A CHILDREN'S home worker has been moved from his post after being caught kerb crawling in a notorious red light area.

Timothy Guy Whitfield, 39, was fined by magistrates after being caught in the red light area of Middlesbrough as part of a police crackdown on prostitution.

Last night, Wendy Shepherd, a children's charity worker heading a task group to fight Middlesbrough's vice trade, called for tougher vetting by local authority employers.

Ms Shepherd, of the Barnardo's Sexual Exploitation of Children on the Streets project, said: "For a member of staff in a prominent position looking after children, to be found in these circumstances poses a challenge for the local authority."

Whitfield was fined £250 with £25 costs when his case was dealt with by Teesside magistrates on June 19.

He was one of the latest group of a dozen kerb crawlers to be named in Middlesbrough's long-running vice crackdown.

Whitfield worked in social services with children for Stockton Borough Council.

The council is understood to have moved him from his position at a children's home to a post in social services training.

Whitfield, whose address was given in court as Wilson Street, Guisborough, east Cleveland, was caught by vice squad officers at 9.20pm on January 3 in Bowes Road, on Middlesbrough's Riverside Industrial Estate.

He was in the back of his car with a vice girl who had a number of convictions for prostitution.

Ms Shepherd, who chairs Middlesbrough's Prostitution Task Group, said the case highlighted the need for tough vetting of council staff who deal with people who are at risk.

She said: "Someone working in this field should have known better because they are putting themselves and others at risk.

"With the amount of publicity there has been about the issue, it is of serious concern that someone professionally involved in social welfare can be involved in kerb crawling.

"It re-emphasises the need for the likes of health and social care to keep a very close eye on the type of people we are employing to look after some of the most vulnerable people in society.

"Their responsibility to the young people they are there to protect is paramount."

A spokeswoman for Stockton Borough Council said: "We can confirm he is an employee."

Asked about his job in the children's home, she said: "He is no longer employed in that capacity."

Inspector Gary Gamesby, who heads the town's vice unit, said: "Kerb crawling is an anti-social offence that won't be tolerated and those who come to Middlesbrough to pay for sex will get caught."