Latest Teesside headlines straight to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A taxi driver was snared by paedophile hunters after trying to meet an underage girl for sex.

Nawaz Zada arranged to meet a 14-year-old girl on a social media and dating site in March this year.

But the 23-year-old Middlesbrough pervert was unaware he had in fact been speaking to an internet vigilante group, known as Dark Justice.

The secret operators pretend to be underage children online and contact police when an offender turns up for an arranged meeting.

They have helped send nine paedophiles to jail since the group was formed just over a year ago.

One of the operators, who does not want to be named, said no suggestive inferences or sexual language were sent in the messages to Zada.

“We set up a profile called Georgia and when he messaged he was told straightaway she was 14,” he said.

“He wanted to meet up pretty much straightaway. He was asking to meet in a hotel and film them having sex.

“We picked a location and as soon as he turned up we rang police.

"He turned up in his taxi and when we approached him he lied about his name."

Running away

When Zada turned up at the arranged venue in Newcastle, he was greeted by the two men who had contacted police.

A video shows the sexual predator running away after being caught.

Zada admitted the single charge of trying to meet an underage girl following sexual grooming at Teesside Crown Court today.

Prosecutor Ian Mullarkey said: “There was in fact no complainant in this case.”

Aisha Wadoodi, defending, told the court: “The defendant is of previous good character.

"He is a university graduate. He’s never been in any trouble before.”

Judge Peter Armstrong allowed Zada, of Jedburgh Street, central Middlesbrough, conditional bail until sentencing on December 4.

He told the defendant: “The purpose of adjourning sentence is so that a pre-sentence report can be prepared upon you.

“I have to warn you that I don’t know what the sentence will be.

“I simply say that all options will be open to the court that deals with you.

“You mustn’t take the renewal of your bail after your guilty plea as any indication of the type of sentence that will be passed.”

Second time

Zada is the second Teesside paedophile to by snared by Dark Justice.

Stockton man John Rudd was jailed in March for the “textbook grooming” of a schoolgirl.

Rudd sent a constant stream of flirty and sexual texts to an online profile which he thought belonged to a 14-year-old girl called Donna.

But the profile was operated by by two men and a camera, operating by Dark Justice.