An illegal immigrant sex offender has been released from jail despite being made subject to a deportation order, a court has heard.

Dunfermline Sheriff Court was told this by the solicitor of 50-year-old Shahid Hassan.

He was not present for the hearing after admitting the breach of a court order.

Hassan, formerly of Tweed Street, Dunfermline, is now living in Cardenden, said his solicitor. He had been put on a community payback order after an offence committed on March 16, 2022.

He admitted that at Kirkcaldy bus station, Hill Street, he approached a female and made a sexually inappropriate comment to her.

Defence solicitor Kerr Sneddon said his client had been sentenced recently at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. It was a two-year jail term but his client was released because of the time he had served on remand.

The sheriff in the Edinburgh case had also made a deportation order but despite this Hassan was no longer in custody and was now living in Cardenden.

Mr Sneddon said his client had lived in the UK illegally for around 20 years. He is on a sex offences prevention order for five years and also on the sex offenders register for 10 years, he added.

The court order was imposed in October 2022 and Hassan was on remand from December that year.

The solicitor commented: “One would hope as a member of the public that something is done about his immigration status.”

Sheriff Garry Sutherland revoked the community payback order and made no further order.