A peripatetic pervert who went AWOL for months pretended to be someone else when a police officer rang him up and asked where he was.

Convicted sex offender Ain Uddin, 48, who was jailed for a year at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday for his third breach of sex offender notification requirements, criss-crossed the country until he was eventually arrested working at an Indian restaurant in Banbury.

Prosecutor Holly Newing said Uddin was originally placed on the sex offender register in February 2020, when he was jailed for 12 weeks for groping a woman on a train.

The court heard he had stared at the fellow passenger before running his hand up her leg. When she told him to stop he resumed his silent staring, later following her down the platform when they both disembarked the train.

Since his release from prison in May 2020, he had twice been before the courts for failing to comply with his sex offender notification requirements by not telling police when he moved addresses.

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His offender manager – a specialist police officer tasked with supervising sex offenders – went his registered address in Leicester in May this year. His landlord said he had not been there since March.

The detective called Uddin and asked where he was. He refused to say.

Other calls went unanswered or the defendant hung up when he realised who was calling him. On one occasion, Uddin pretended to be another person.

He was tracked across the country, with evidence that he had been as far afield as Devon and Cornwall.

By August, police knew he was working in a restaurant in Banbury. He was arrested on September 29.

In his interview he agreed that the offender manager had gone through the terms of his sex offender notification requirements with him. He admitted moving to Banbury in July without notifying the police.

Uddin, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to breaching the terms of his sex offender notification requirements.

Mitigating, Alice Aubrey-Fletcher said her client had lived a ‘relatively nomadic’ existence for many years, getting seasonal work waiting tables in restaurants across the UK.

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The arrangement which saw him put up in accommodation linked to his work was ‘not conducive’ to complying with the notification requirements, it was said.

Judge Ian Pringle KC jailed Uddin for 12 months, telling him: “You were fully familiar with the obligations that you had.”

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward