A convicted sex offender hid a mobile phone in an outside bin to avoid scrutiny of the device by police officers.

David Gregory’s deception came to light when officers threatened to search his home during a routine visit to ensure he was abiding by the conditions of his sexual harm prevention order.

The 45-year-old had declared a mobile phone to them, which had specialist software installed to record his online activity, but deliberately hid the other handset from the officers, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Rachel Butt, prosecuting, told the court that the defendant had been jailed in 2016 for trying to facilitate sexual activity with a child.

What he didn’t realise was that he was speaking to an undercover police officer and the two children he hoped to sexually abuse were fictitious.

Miss Butt said Gregory was arrested when he arranged to meet the woman at service station on the M25 and when police searched him and his vehicle, they recovered condoms and lubricant.

She said his deliberate action to hide the mobile phone, two memory sticks and a digital storage card posed a significant risk to children.

Gregory, of Alston Moor Close, Darlington, pleaded guilty to two breaches of his sexual harm prevention order after he failed to make the digital devices available to members of the public protection team.

Jonathan Walker, mitigating, said these were the first breaches of the court order since his release from custody and had subsequently been recalled on licence to serve the remainder of his original sentence.

See more court stories from The Northern Echo by clicking here

Get all the latest crime and court updates, for less than the price of a coffee, with a Premium Plus digital subscription to The Northern Echo. Click here

He said he accepted that his client’s letter to the court contained an element of ‘belligerence’ but accepted that he had hidden the mobile phone in the bin.

Judge Howard Crowson jailed the sex offender for a further nine months after hearing that a forensic analysis of the digital devices revealed they did not contain any illicit content.

He said: “You deliberately failed to handover devices, in particular the mobile phone, which was hidden inside the bin and only revealed it when they threatened to search your house.

“This was recovered and they also found two USB sticks and the SD card.”