He added that the mistake arose from the way Americans write dates.However, Mr James said: “If he has given inaccurate particulars, and in this case material particulars – because the police do checks based on the date of birth – then there is a question of whether the licence is voided.”A spokesman for Camden Council said: “The mistake might be relevant, especially regarding police checks We don’t know whether the police have checked Mr Gray. But they raised no objection at the original licensing hearing. But we would be interested to know and may well raise it with the police.”On Mr Gray’s convictions, he added: “That may be material. We need to know more about the exact nature of the offences.”In August 1995, Mr Gray, then described as the owner of a Spearmint Rhino topless bar near Los Angeles, was arrested after 10 complaints that he had written cheques that bounced. As a result, Mr Gray was facing a potential five-year sentence. However, after plea bargaining, he was sentenced to six months in jail.At the time of his sentencing, Mr Gray was already in a federal prison for an unrelated case of making a false statement to win a contract from the US Navy.Mr Gray told the IoS that his financial problems arose following the illness and death of his father and problems from his father’s construction firm.

“I am ashamed of what I have done and I have paid my debt to society,” he said. “I would not do it again and I have not erred since.”The club has had a number of recent setbacks. Two weeks ago, a waitress from the Tottenham Court Road club won £60,000 in a sex discrimination case. The pregnant Miss Samantha McGaw, 27, wanted to wear a less revealing outfit at the club but bosses refused.

She claimed that dancers were referred to by male colleagues as “mingers” and “wildebeest” and that managers allegedly used weekly planning meetings to discuss whom they would like to sleep with.In July last year, Camden police said that, in their view, “activity within the club, intentionally or otherwise, borders on offences of prostitution and permitting the keeping of a brothel”.. It was the moment when two egos collided. She was the party apparatchik who wanted to stamp her authority on Whitehall in her role as special adviser to the Secretary of State for Transport, Stephen Byers. He was the tough BBC Moscow veteran determined to maintain his position as head of communications at the Department of Transport

It was the moment when two egos collided.

She wanted her hands on every announcement,” said one insider. She began her career at Labour’s former Walworth Road headquarters as a lowly press officer when Labour was toiling against a hostile media, and Peter Mandelson was in charge. During the 1997 general election campaign, she was ever-present, clipboard in hand, working in Alastair Campbell’s shadow She was sharp, trusted and totally committed to the party. After departing for two years with the lobbyists Westminster Strategy, she returned to the Labour fold, working for Stephen Byers at the DTI.There were rumours of clashes with civil servants, which grew when she moved with Byers to Transport. It was there that she made her greatest error, e-mailing colleagues on 11 September that the terrorist attacks made it a “good day to bury bad news”. She apologised, but there were still questions about her judgement.Mr Sixsmith’s career should have prepared him for the realpolitik of the department.