2,700 people wrongly tagged as criminals

The government has admitted that 2,700 people have been wrongly labelled criminals following errors at the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB).

The blunder was uncovered by The Mail on Sunday, which found that the innocent citizens - ranging from court ushers to students - were refused jobs and university courses after wrongly failing CRB checks.

The police checks are usually carried out to vet people who apply to work as teachers with children or vulnerable adults.

But in some cases innocent people failed a check because their own details were similar to those of someone else with a criminal record on the CRB database.

So far 1,500 of those who were incorrectly identified as having criminal convictions, ranging from theft to violent robbery, have successfully appealed and had to go to their local police station to undergo a fingerprint check, according to the paper.

The Home Office said it would make no apology for erring on the side of caution when there are close ID matches on the CRB system and added that they account for just 0.03 per cent of the nine million checks carried out since the CRB launched four years ago.

But Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said the latest revelations take Home Office incompetence to "new absurd levels".

He said in a statement: "While dangerous criminals are allowed to walk freely in our communities, innocent people are being given criminal records and prevented from getting on with their lives. This latest fiasco will erase the last bit of public confidence in the Home Office."