Sex offender found managing Matlock curry house is jailed for ten years

Zahir Hussain, 39, was wanted by police after going missing from two addresses he told them he would be living at, Derby Crown Court heard last week.

It was only after he was arrested by Derbyshire police earlier this year for an unrelated offence that it came to light exactly who he was.

Hussain pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to comply with a sex offender’s notification requirement.

Jailing him for a total of ten years, Judge Jonathan Bennett said: “Back in Birmingham in 2010 you were convicted of a sex offence involving a child and as part of that you were to notify the police if you changed addresses.

“The reason why they are in place is so the police are able to monitor sex offenders for the protection of the public.

“The police came to check on you in November 2012 at addresses in Birmingham and Essex and you weren’t there.

“In fact, your whereabouts remained unknown for more than four years and that long period of non-compliance is why it must be immediate custody today.”

Julia King, prosecuting, said Hussain signed the sex offenders register after being convicted of an offence involving a child in 2010 at Birmingham Crown Court.

Under its terms he was ordered to tell the police of his address and to notify them if he moved.

She said: “In 2012, he told them he had two addresses, one his family home in Carlton Avenue, Handsworth, Birmingham , and another above a restaurant where he said he was working at the time in Chelmsford, Essex.

“He was at neither address and the owner of the Essex property said he had not seen him for four months.

“The defendant’s details were circulated as a wanted person and he was located on September 17 of this year when he was arrested in the Matlock area.

“He was interviewed and told officer he was stupid and for the past two years he had been living in Matlock but he did not say why he failed to tell them of his change of address.”

Lauren Fisher, for Hussain, said her client had been the manager at the Moja Indian Restaurant, on Dale Road, Matlock, for just over two years and lived above it.

She said he is the father of a seven-month-old child who he sees two-to-three times a week and that the owner of the restaurant would keep his accommodation and employment open should he not be jailed immediately.

“He is in fear that he will lose his employment at the Moja Restaurant where he also has stable accommodation.

“He has been in custody since his arrest in September and that has brought home to him how seriously the courts take this type of offending.”

*A version of this story originally appeared in the Derby Telegraph