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A homeless paedophile lured a schoolgirl into sex using a false identity and exploited her during an eight-month online grooming campaign.

Banti Singh, of no fixed address, called himself Velly Boy online and told the girl he was younger than his 30 years.

He claimed to work in a restaurant when he initially made contact with the teenager on Facebook, reports the Birmingham Mail.

However, the illegal immigrant was actually living rough in London and had travelled to meet his victim in the West Midlands.

Singh was jailed for a total of seven years after admitting 12 counts of sexual activity with a child and three counts of child abduction during an earlier hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

(Image: SWNS)

He will also be placed on the sex offenders register for life, as well as being served with a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

Singh was finally arrested last September after the 14-year-old girl’s family alerted cops about her behaviour and contact she was having with an older man.

Her relatives first learned of her relationship with Singh when she went missing from home twice in a week.

She was eventually discovered outside the Premier Inn hotel in Walsall with a man, who ran off when approached by the girl’s family.

(Image: PA)

Police subsequently interviewed the teenager who admitted to a sexual relationship with the man she knew as Randeep, who had first contacted her online when she was just 13.

But Singh did not give up and the girl’s suspicious relatives followed her to a local train station at a later date when they found her meeting the man when he returned from London to meet her.

He was detained by police after her family raised the alarm.

Singh firstly denied having a sexual relationship with the girl, but police found a bag he had tried to hide which contained toiletries, a piece of paper containing passwords to the teenager’s social media accounts and mobile phone, as well as a fake passport.

(Image: West Midlands Police)

DC Alli Wilkins, from the West Midlands Police Public Protection Unit, said: “Singh ultimately controlled this young girl over a period of eight months, from the point when he first made contact on Facebook through to his arrest.

“He took over the girl’s phone, deleted contacts he deemed unsuitable, engaged her in a sexual relationship - despite knowing her to be underage - and invented a false identity, claiming he was two years younger and worked in a restaurant.

“In reality Singh had entered the country illegally, had no known home, visa or job, and claimed he slept in temples in London most of the time.

“Thankfully the girl’s family raised the alarm, allowing a thorough investigation to be launched to identify and detain the man responsible for the girl’s exploitation.”