A PROLIFIC sex offender was today (Monday, May 20) jailed for the fifth time for breaching a court order banning him from going near children.

Andrew Bland, 31, was caught on CCTV cameras approaching women and youngsters in the Castlegate shopping centre in Stockton.

Under a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO), he is prohibited from "loitering in any pace within 20 metres of anyone under-16".

Prosecutor Rachel Masters told Teesside Crown Court that he pestered three people, all of whom had children with them, on January 28.

When he was arrested, Bland claimed he had been asking one woman for a light for a cigarette and then others for money to buy heroin.

The SOPO was imposed in 2004 for ten years after Bland was jailed for three years for taking a child without lawful authority.

The court heard that he also has convictions from 1999 for indecent assault and inciting a child to commit an act of gross indecency.

Bland breached the SOPO in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 and received prison sentences ranging from six months to three years.

Judge Peter Armstrong jailed him for 12 months yesterday after telling him: "They were persistent and come after a series of others."

Bland, of Hartington Road, Stockton, admitted breaching the order, and the judge told him the flouting had been "deliberate".

Garry Wood, mitigating, said: "Had it been his first breach, the court may have been minded to deal with him with a community penalty."