A children's home worker caught kerb crawling in a notorious red-light district has been fined £250.

Disgraced Timothy Guy Whitfield, 39, has since been moved from his post but is still working for Stockton Council on Teesside.

The case prompted the children's charity worker heading a task group fighting Middlesbrough's vice trade to call for far tougher vetting by local authority employers.

Wendy 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, of Guisborough, was fined £250 with £25 costs when his case was dealt with by Teesside Magistrates on June 19.

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

Whitfield worked in social services with children for Stockton 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, was caught by vice squad officers at 9.20pm on January 3 on Bowes Road on Middlesbrough's Riverside Industrial Estate.

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

Wendy Shepherd, who chairs Middlesbrough's Prostitution Task Group, said the case highlighted the need for tough vetting of council staff who deal with those 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 and purchasing sex from adults.

"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.

"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.

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

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

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

Inspector Gary Gamesby, who heads the town's vice unit, said: "We will continue to robustly tackle kerb-crawlers who travel to the town.

"These men have a clear choice to make but the residents have no choice and my support and commitment lies with them.

"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."