Children's home plan pulled over sex abuser link

A convicted child sex abuser may have to pay damages to a company which withdrew plans to open a children's home in a property he owns, after his criminal past was uncovered.

Abid Younis, from Leeds, was jailed for two-and-a-half years in 2015 after he was convicted of sexual activity with a girl under the age of 13.

The application to convert the house into a home for vulnerable youngsters was withdrawn last month after Younis's ownership of the property was revealed.

The BBC has written to Younis, who does not live at the house, and visited his home address but has yet to receive a response.

A local councillor said that the situation had "raised alarm bells" as Leeds council may have been powerless to reject the application on legal grounds had it proceeded to committee stage.

Guidelines suggest Younis's conviction would not have been deemed a material planning consideration and thus not a reason for turning it down.

QASA, the care company which submitted the application, told the BBC it had no prior knowledge of Younis's background before it signed the lease to run the property in the Beeston area of the city.

It said it would "never put children's lives in danger" and had withdrawn the application after being made aware of his past.

Company director Omar Farooq said: "If at the beginning we were aware of his conviction we would never even think of opening a residential home in this house, it just does not make sense.

"It is absurd to think of doing this. If we had known about his conviction at the beginning we would have walked away and not signed a lease or exchanged any monies.

"We have spoken to our solicitors and will be issuing proceedings against Mr Younis to recover loss of our earnings paid out to him."

Councillor Mark Dobson, who flagged the application to the council earlier this month, said it was "extremely good news" the plan had been withdrawn.

"But equally, this has raised a great deal of alarm bells when it was brought to my attention by a member of the public, who wanted to raise concerns regarding child safeguarding," he said.

The councillor said the case showed problems with the current planning system.

"Local authorities should be given more power to dismiss applications that are clearly inappropriate," he added.

Deputy council leader Jonathan Pryor said it was "absolutely right" the plan had been withdrawn.

"We are pressing on what can be done to prevent similar applications from being brought forward," he added.

A government spokesperson said: "This government will do whatever it takes to keep children safe, and we are already taking swift action to reform children's social care through our landmark Children Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

"While it is not the role of the planning system to regulate who should run a children's home, there are strict safeguards in place to protect children and we will continue to keep the system under review to ensure it works appropriately."

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