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A convicted sex offender has been jailed again after failing to tell police he was staying on a friend's sofa.

Michael Andrew Jones, 49, had told police he was homeless.

But they found that actually he was staying on someone's sofa, breaching his sex offender registration requirements that demand he tells police on a weekly basis what his living arrangements are.

Deputy District Judge Chris Johnson, sitting at Mold, was told that he had breached the registration requirements previously.

"It is by no means the first time that you have failed to sign on as you are required to do," the judge told him.

Prosecutor Rhian Jackson said that Jones was subject to registration following conviction for a serious sexual offence in 1998.

In February he registered with police at Mold that he was of no fixed abode but then failed to do so again within seven days.

Interviewed, he said that he had health, drug and alcohol issues and had not realised he had to re-register being of no fixed abode.

He said he did not remember things, was always drunk, wanted assistance with his drug and alcohol issues but was banned from the services

because of his temper.

Jones said that he did not remember registering himself as homeless with the police and was not aware he had to do it weekly.

The court heard that he had breached the requirements previously in 2003, 2001, 2014 and again last year.

David Matthews, defending, said Jones had breached the order previously but he had not committed a substantive offence for some four

years.

He had done his best to keep out of trouble, had been diagnosed with quite severe mental health problems and struggled with them on a daily basis.

Mr Matthews said that Jones was self-medicating on drugs and alcohol.

On his release from prison he had been directed to a hostel Ty Gwyn. Ten people would turn up wanting a bed and it was a lottery who got one, as there were only six.

When he could not stay there he was put in breach of the requirements, so a friend put him up on a sofa.

No one was at risk there but he accepted that he had not registered the address with the police.

His lawyer said he needed stability in his life and he had been begging for help with his mental health.

The lawyer said that a lack of resources in the community for people in his client's position meant that places were rare and that accommodation

seemed to be at a premium.

"He accepts that he has not complied but he would say that he has tried his best," said Mr Matthews.

District Judge Johnson jailed him for 18 weeks.