HELPING his mother care for his sick father led to a sex offender failing to notify police of his whereabouts, Swindon magistrates heard yesterday.

Marc Few was supposed to sign on in Swindon under the requirements of a court order because he had no fixed address, but missed weekly appointments between March 16 and April 9, the court was told. Few, admitted the charge.

Peter Gotch, defending, explained Few’s elderly father, who had been ill with a heart complaint, had been sent home to Woodborough, near Devizes, by the hospital.

But his stepmother was struggling to look after him and Few had been travelling down to help her.

He thought he could sign on at Devizes police station but when he arrived it was closed.

“From there he accepts that it went to the back of his mind,” said Mr Gotch. But Few accepted that he should have been signing at Gablecross.

He was arrested on Saturday and had spent the weekend in custody. Since then police had released him from the weekly responsibility and he now had an address with his girlfriend.

The bench fined Few £100 but said he had served time in lieu in custody. He was also ordered to pay £40 prosecution costs and carry out five extra rehabilitation activity days on a community order imposed on him in March for a different burglary.