Calls for mandatory licensing have long been made in the UK estate agency industry.

But consider a case in America which has been gripping and horrifying people otherwise preoccupied with the election of Donald J Trump.

It concerns an estate agent who has, say the authorities, confessed to being a serial killer, responsible for the murders of seven people and one kidnap.

Horrifyingly, Todd Kohlepp had already been convicted of rape back in 1986 and had spent 15 years in jail before being granted his real estate agent’s licence in 2006.

Three years before getting his licence he committed a quadruple murder – something to which he has only now confessed.

After being licensed, Kohlepp built up his own real estate firm employing nine people. His behaviour at work was reported as creepy – it included watching porn, making macabre jokes and openly saying he was a sex offender. He would also say he knew where people lived.

He has now been charged with the kidnapping and murders.

The alleged kidnap victim is a 30-year-old woman who went missing in August along with her boyfriend and was found chained up like a dog in a container on his property.

A body said to be that of the boyfriend was also found on the property, and police say that Kohlepp led them to two other graves.

In America, those applying for a real estate licence are required to disclose any past criminal convictions. So how did Kohlepp get his licence when he had already served 15 years in jail with no parole?

The answer appears to be that in applying for his licence, Kohlepp made the 1986 incident appear as though it was a youthful indiscretion arising after a row with his girlfriend.

Then aged 15, he said had been carrying a gun because he was worried about crime in the area.

However, a local paper has found that court documents covering the 1986 case offer a very different account to the one Kohlepp gave the licensing authorities.

He had in fact used a gun to force a 14-year-old girl to go to his home where he bound and gagged her before raping her.

Clearly, court reporting in South Carolina, America, is nowhere near as constrained as in the UK.

However, the mandatory licensing of estate agents is meant to be just that – a constraint as to who is allowed to join the profession, and yet a convicted rapist still slipped through the net because it appears that court records were not checked.

If the UK ever does get mandatory licensing of agents, there are lessons to be learned.