A SEX offender and thug who took on a fake identity to start a new life in England, has been locked up for a total of 16 months.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Lithuanian robber Stasys Baranauskas, 24, who had a record for conning the authorities, was wanted on warrant after attacking a housemate with a golf club in Burnley almost six years ago and then fleeing.

He didn't want to be arrested and so set about a sophisticated campaign of trickery using false identification documents to try to stay in England undetected.

Baranauskas, who was also banned in Northern Ireland and wanted to drive in this country, applied using false details.

When police finally caught up with him, he gave a false name in custody but was trapped by fingerprints.

The defendant, of Manor Street, Nelson, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm, failing to comply with the sex offenders' register, obstructing police, two counts of possessing false identification documents and one of making a false representation.

Mark Stuart, prosecuting, said on July 12, 2006, drunken Baranauskas hit a man on the arm and the head with a golf club.

Baranauskas was arrested 10 days later. He did not turn up for court and a warrant was issued.

On November 22, last year, the defendant, who had been in Northern Ireland and had got sent to prison, went to the Jobcentreplus in Preston and made an application for a national insurance number, giving another name and date of birth.

He was to use the same con weeks later.

On October 2010, the defendant had been put on the sex offenders' register for seven years in Northern Ireland, after being convicted of exposure and was supposed to report any new address to the police within three days.