He worked on sensitive casework for nearly two months in Inverness before being dismissed for incompetence and falsifying timesheets.

But Christopher Nwokoro was not registered as a social worker and once used a false reference to get a job. He had been sacked by two other councils before obtaining the post in Inverness.

The council has now been rapped by Government investigators and an MSP has claimed the local authority failed in its duty of care to children in its protection.

At the time he was employed, the council was already under fire for its social work department's handling of the Danielle Reid case, the tot who was murdered in 2002.

Four-year-old Inverness schoolgirl Danielle was killed by her mother's drug addict lover Lee Gaytor at their home in the Crown area and her body was dumped in the Caledonian Canal.

She had been missing for several months before the alarm was raised.

It emerged this week that at the time a highly-critical report on the department's failings was delivered, Mr Nwokoro worked with the council's children and families team at Culloden from January 25 to March 17, 2006, and his duties included reviewing care plans of children in need.

Now the council has been strongly criticised by a Care Standards Tribunal along with two other councils in the UK for employing Mr Nwokoro, who had claimed he had been awarded a Diploma in social work in Nigeria in 2002 and an MA in social care in the UK.

No evidence has been found to show he holds these qualifications. The tribunal met to consider an appeal by Mr Nwokoro against the General Social Care Council's (GSCC) decision to refuse to register him as a social worker.

He failed to attend the hearing in Manchester and also failed to produce a statement answering the allegations. The tribunal upheld the decision to refuse him registration.

Evidence revealed that between January 2005 and March 2006 he had worked with social services teams in Stockport in England and Denbighshire in Wales.

Having been sacked from his posts there he then moved to the Highlands.

The tribunal raised concerns that, given Mr Nwokoro's poor performance record and the discovery of a false reference, it was only Highland Council which made a complaint to the GSCC. Stockport and Denbighshire were criticised by the tribunal for failing to raise their concerns with the GSCC.

"Our third concern is the way in which some authorities appear to have accepted that Mr Nwokoro was a registered social worker when he was clearly not," the tribunal added in its findings.

Mr Nwokoro secured his posts with the councils through an agency.

The tribunal sets out in detail "comprehensive deceit" practiced by Mr Nwokoro.

During his spell with Highland Council he falsified timesheets and, in one case where he was asked to undertake a risk assessment, his report did not fully address risk factors.

In Denbighshire, Nwokoro failed to contact or visit clients as frequently as he should have and failed to implement care plans. Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council dismissed him for incompetence and falsifying a reference by writing it himself.

Mr Nwokoro had also been sacked as a night care worker by the charity Together Trust for poor timekeeping and failing to read and understand young people's risk assessments.

Highland MSP Mary Scanlon said it was incredible that he could "slip through the net".

She said: "There was a basic failure by Highland Council not only to fulfil all the correct employment procedures, such as checking references with the previous employer and qualifications and competence for the post, but they failed in their 'duty of care' to the vulnerable children who depend on their protection and support.

"Highland Council accepted this person as a registered social worker when he clearly was not.

"The onus is now on Highland Council to assure people in the Highlands that their human resource procedures have been overhauled so that in future all social workers employed by the council will be qualified."

A spokesman for the council said the agency who supplied Mr Nwokoro provided his references and disclosure.

The spokesman said: "He indicated he had applied for registration and supplied a letter. It should be noted that at this time the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) had indicated they had a backlog of applications and therefore the facility to check on-line was not up and running. Indeed, because of this backlog, at that time employers' organisations were advised that the letter indicating an application by a certain date would suffice."

He added: "The worker was under close supervision during his short time with the team; shadowing and mentored by an experienced practitioner, who raised concerns about his practice. This coincided with information coming to the manager's attention that the worker had submitted false time sheets. Immediate action was taken to report to both the SSSC and the GSSC.

"Notwithstanding it is important to indicate the council has robust recruitment procedures, further support and guidance has been offered to staff to ensure references disclosure and registration are all robustly scrutinised and checked."

* At the time Nowkoro was employed in Inverness by Highland Council, the local authority social work department was in the spotlight for its handling of the Danielle Reid case.

A report had just been published after an investigation by Dr Jean Herbison, child protection clinician with NHS Glasgow, who was asked to carry out an independent review into the circumstances of Danielle's death in November 2002.

She was highly critical of social workers who had on a number of occasions been alerted to concerns about the girl's welfare and her non-appearance at Crown Primary School but had failed to follow these up properly.

d.wilson@highland-news.co.uk

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