A CONVICTED sex offender is back behind bars after trying to befriend a teenage boy and failing to tell police where he was living.

James Sholder moved into a friend's home in Middlesbrough without informing the authorities after a spell of homelessness.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the 31-year-old was left alone in the house on Millbrook Avenue, Middlesbrough, in August last year when the occupier went to visit family in Scotland.

Nigel Soppitt, prosecuting, said Sholder had breached the terms of his notification requirement order on two occasions when he failed to tell officers of his change of circumstances when he attended Middlesbrough police station in August last year.

He said: "This was when he was living at Millbrook Avenue, he did attend but told the police he was of no fixed abode."

While under investigation for the breaches, Sholder was arrested for breaching the terms of his sexual harm prevention order when he was living at a different address in Middlesbrough in September this year.

Mr Soppitt said: "When he moved into the street and tried to engage with the boy, he was trying to familiarise himself with the family. The following day the boy's mother went into her house leaving her son outside, when she came back outside, she saw and heard the defendant talking to her son about buying a BMX bike."

The defendant was jailed in 2012 for series sexual offences against young boys and given a ten-year SHPO preventing him being alone with underage children.

Sholder, of Meath Street, Middlesbrough, who also goes by the name of Johnson, pleaded guilty to three charges of failing to notify authorities of his address and one charge of breaching his SHPO.

Shaun Routledge, in mitigation, told the court that his client's problems often stemmed from him being homeless and had being staying at Millbrook Avenue with the occupier's permission.

He said: "It was the first time he had a proper residence for some time, he speaks to people in the street and spoke the young lad about the BMX bike.

"He didn't prevaricate about that pleaded guilty at the first possible opportunity."

Judge Jonathan Carroll jailed Sholder for a total of 16 months for all four charges. He said: "You had been of no fixed abode for a period of time but there came a period of time when you were temporarily accommodated at Millbrook Avenue, you were under an obligation to notify the police of that address.

"You stayed there for 17 days and at no stage did you notify the police. For a period of time you were occupying that house alone whilst the occupant was away and that is exactly the kind of reason why the police should be notified, so that when are in a position to commit potential offences, they can put the appropriate protections in place."