A former director of a company which ran children’s homes has been struck off the register of social workers.

Christopher Edwards had been interviewed by police in 2014 about allegations of physical assault on young people in his care in the late 1980s.

But Mr Edwards, who was a co-owner and director of children's home firm Prospects For Young People, had not informed bosses at the firm which took it over, the Keys Group, of the historical allegations.

Nor had he told them that because of the investigation - which was later dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service - he was not allowed to have unsupervised access with children.

The decision to ban Mr Edwards from being a social worker for at least five years also centred on an 'investigation' into allegations a co-worker at the firm he ran had accessed adult pornography on a work computer and had used misused a company credit card.

Mr Edwards carried out his own investigation and then commissioned an external investigation.

The copy of his own investigation report, which he provided to Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW, now ) had been amended. One of the paragraphs deleted stated that he had not identified any evidence of safeguarding concerns about the co-worker (Colleague A) and therefore no regulatory bodies needed to be notified.

After the company was taken over Keys became concerned about his lack of transparency over the investigation and the fact that Mr Edwards himself had been the subject of allegations which had led to a restriction on unsupervised care of children.

He was sacked in June, 2016, after it was found that he had not disclosed matters to the Care Inspectorate, and had asked the Inspectorate to identify an external investigator to look into the allegations against Colleague A when such a report already existed.

The case against Mr Edwards for Social Care Wales' Fitness to Practise panel stated: “By not informing CSSIW of the true position, Mr Edwards failed to communicate in an open, accurate and straightforward way with them.”

His actions, it was claimed “were dishonest and/ or lacked integrity”, and he should have referred his colleague’s misconduct to the Inspectorate.

Colleague A subsequently voluntarily removed himself from the register and so cannot be investigated.

Because Mr Edwards agreed to be struck off a meeting of the SCW’s Fitness to Practise panel due to have been held last month was cancelled.

In accepting the case against him, Mr Edwards stated: “I accept that by virtue of the above my fitness to practise is impaired as a result of misconduct.”

The Welsh Government and Disclosure and Barring Service have been informed of Mr Edwards’ current status.

Prospects For Young People ran children's homes in the Wrexham area.