A PERVERT who paid a 17-year-old £200 to have sex with him has been jailed for three years.

Martin Gupta, 54, was well known in his local area for using prostitutes but last year approached the younger sister of a woman he regularly paid for services on Facebook.

He told the young woman it would be “easy money” and would be 25 minutes work.

The 17-year-old, who can not be named for legal reasons, agreed to go to Gupta’s house in Manor Road, Blackburn, feeling she had to do it for the money - but had no idea he intended to film the arrangement.

Inside the house he told him she felt uncomfortable but Gupta told her to “just watch telly” while he had sex with her, Preston Crown Court heard.

Judge Graham Knowles said: “You treated her with utter contempt, as an object for your own satisfaction and nothing else.”

Her sister, who had taken her to the house, waited outside in the car, but remained in text communication with her and eventually came to her rescue, the court heard.

On a second occasion, Gupta agreed to write off a £40 debt the young woman had to him and pay her £20 to have sex with him.

He was later arrested and admitted two counts of paying a child for sexual activity.

His victim told police officers: “My life is f***ed. I might as well make it more f***ed.”

Her sister described her lifestyle, saying: “When you don’t have family or friend and there is no-one you can trust, that is just how it is. I want a proper life but what I need and what I have to do are different things.”

In a pre-sentence report, Gupta told the probation officer he thought he was helping the teenager out in the same way he had helped her sister out.

Judge Knowles, sentencing, said: “No you didn’t. You genuinely thought you could get what you wanted and you were right.

“Your behaviour towards her was despicable.”

The judge said he was not sentencing Gupta for anything he did with adult women, including the victim’s sister.

The court heard references which described Gupta as a hard worker in his role caring for people with hearing loss.

Judge Knowles said: “You say you have learned your lesson the hard way. Well you haven’t, but you are about to.

“You say you can guarantee this stupid mistake will not be repeated. I don’t know what this ‘stupid mistake’ is. Perhaps in your own mind is that if you hadn’t paid a 17-year-old for sex you could carry on as before.”

He jailed Gupta for three years for each offence concurrently and made a sexual harm prevention order.