A TAXI driver was banned from taking children to school after he was seen hugging and kissing two young girls – despite them being his own daughters.

Private hire driver Tony Kemp endured a “living nightmare” after being suspended from making the school run in his taxi for six days by North Yorkshire County Council.

The shocked 60-year-old, from Kirkbymoorside, near Helmsley, was called by the authority and told he was immediately suspended from the school run last Thursday (January 14).

He was told an allegation had been made against him, but was given no more details.

Last Friday, he was told by someone in the taxi trade that it was well known in Pickering and Malton that a driver had been suspended after someone reported seeing him kissing and cuddling two girls outside Pickering Junior School.

"That's when the penny dropped," said Mr Kemp, who runs Crystal Cars.

"I take children to the school from villages up on the moors but it wasn't them I was hugging and kissing - it was my own daughters, who are aged nine and 11 and are taken to the school each day by their mother from their home in Malton.

"We have unfortunately separated and I live in Kirkbymoorside, but they always look out for me and run up for a hug and a kiss when they see me arrive with the car, and my daughter also gets in the vehicle to get some of my Tic Tacs from a door pocket."

He believes a public-spirited person misinterpreted what was happening and alerted the authorities.

However, Mr Kemp can't understand why he wasn’t told the details of what was alleged and interviewed as a matter of urgency, which would have allowed him to provide an explanation of the innocent incident.

"The past six days have been the worst of my life since my father died 35 years ago," he said. "I'm personally devastated at the allegation aimed at me.

"I've also lost hundreds of pounds worth of business but even worse than that is that my good reputation, which I have built up over the past 12 years, has been shattered, and I'm worried about reprisals from people who think I go round kissing schoolchildren," he said.

Mr Kemp has now returned to his school run.

A council spokeswoman said: “We have followed the Child Protection Procedures. This matter has now been investigated and found to be false."