Scarborough convicted sex offender jailed for 18 months for offences including disclosing sexual photos and fraud

A devious fraudster has been jailed 18 months for exposing a raunchy photo of a scantily-clad young woman, fleecing another in a cunning social-media blag and going on a spending spree with a credit card he stole from a stranger he met on a night out.
Joseph Derek Bailey.Joseph Derek Bailey.
Joseph Derek Bailey.

Joseph Derek Bailey, 22, a convicted sex offender who was on bail at the time, got hold of the picture of the woman dressed in just her underwear. He then sent it out to several of the victim’s contacts and promised to send more raunchy snaps “if monies were paid”.

“He said in an attached message that he would send further photos of a similar nature if monies were paid,” prosecutor Lorena Veale told York Crown Court.

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Just to rub salt into the wound, Bailey then wheedled £35 out of the victim’s friend in an audacious scam which involved him giving her his bank-account details to pay a ‘debt’ he wasn’t owed, added the barrister.

The money was duly paid into his account.

The fraud was soon traced to Bailey and police seized his bank card after swooping on his home in Scarborough.

At the time of these offences in November last year, Bailey was on an interim notification order for a sex offence against an under-age girl.

He received a 12-month suspended prison sentence in January this year and placed on the sex-offenders’ register for seven years for having sex with the girl at a property in York where he had been “sofa-surfing”. Bailey met the girl on Facebook.

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The sentencing judge said at the time that Bailey had been spared jail due to “strong personal mitigation”.

“He was given three days to complete his (sexual-offenders) registration… but he never registered,” said Ms Veale.

“He did not complete the registration until January 29, which was 27 days after the date he was required to complete the registration. He admitted he simply decided not to comply.”

Bailey admitted the breach when he appeared before magistrates on February 8, but the following day - while on bail for the offences in November - he ended up at a couple’s home in Sheffield who offered to put him up for the night after meeting at a bar.

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The following morning, the victim and his girlfriend woke to find his £140 watch missing, along with his credit card which Bailey used to spend just over £20 on drinks and burgers at pubs and a fast-food outlet in the city centre.

The court heard that Bailey had just been turfed out of his new home in Sheffield at the behest of police. Once he had gone, his estate agents found several bank cards hidden behind a wardrobe.

Two weeks later, he was injured in a serious car crash and taken to a Sheffield hospital where he had 16 stitches. Police turned up and found him wearing the man’s missing watch. Bailey was arrested and charged with stealing from and defrauding the victim in Sheffield.

He admitted the offences at Sheffield Crown Court in March, but only after failing to surrender to custody and report his whereabouts to police, claiming he was homeless.

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Bailey, described as a “bright young man”, was originally due to be sentenced at York Crown Court on March 6 but failed to show up. An arrest warrant was issued and North Yorkshire Police sent out a ‘wanted’ appeal, but he had already flitted to Sheffield after bunking in hostels and hotels on the east coast.

Bailey - formerly of Auborough Street, Scarborough, but lately of no fixed address - told officers the fraud offences against the female were out of pure “greed”.

He was charged with disclosing private sexual photos with intent to cause distress, theft from a dwelling, five counts of fraud, failing to comply with notification requirements and breaching a suspended prison sentence.

Defence barrister Susannah Proctor said Bailey’s life had “descended into chaos” owing chiefly to a booze problem.

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She said the well-educated former barman “realised he couldn’t cope without self-medicating with alcohol”.

He had left Scarborough after “someone kicked his door in” and threatened him following his conviction for the sex offence, although this was “no excuse for not notifying (the police of his

whereabouts)”.

Bailey was now “extremely remorseful” for his actions which happened in a “haze of alcohol”.

The court heard that Bailey had been spared prison for the sex offence because up until then his slate was clean.

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But on Friday he got his comeuppance when Recorder Jonathan Sandiford castigated him for his “catalogue of offences” and branded his fraudulence “mean”.

Bailey will serve half of his 18-month sentence behind bars before becoming eligible for parole.