A sex offender has been returned to jail after flouting a court order and hiding evidence from the police.
Alan Richardson, aged 50, was banned by a Sexual Harm Prevention Order from keeping undeclared internet-capable devices or deleting his browsing history.
Believing he may have committed additional offences online, officers visited Richardson’s home in Stapleford on 18 June last year.
After a lengthy delay, he eventually opened the door to let the officers in – but not before performing a factory reset on his tablet.
As well as unearthing that deceit, a police digital forensics officer also discovered that a specialist anonymised search engine was previously active on the same device.
Richardson, who was previously jailed for making indecent images of children, later admitted to two counts of breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
Appearing at Nottingham Crown Court on Monday 31 March he was jailed for two years.
Detective Constable Ed Priestley, of Nottinghamshire Police, sad:
“Richardson is the lates in a line of offenders to find out first hand just how seriously the courts take this kind of flagrant disregard for the orders they impose.
“Even though he was not convicted on this occasion for more serious offences, these breaches alone were enough to land him back in jail.
“Sexual Harm Prevention Orders are a key part of our work to manage sex offenders’ risk to the public and we are extremely proactive in enforcing these.
“As in this case, when we have reason to believe these orders are being ignored, we will take robust action and put people before the courts again.
“Richardson and others like him should be in no doubt about what will happen to them if they take similar actions in the future.”
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