A PIMP who set up an escort agency offering young men and teenage boys for sex has been jailed for at least 10 years.

Raymond Hawthorn set up the agency just weeks after being released from jail in December 2012.

He had been jailed for nine years for prostituting a 14-year-old boy up to eight times a day over a week long period - and his young victim went on to commit suicide.

But within days of his release, he came to live in Bolton and by May 2013 he had set up a series of secret bank accounts and began operating Gold Star Escorts, offering the services of young men on websites.

Henry Blackshaw, prosecuting, told Bolton Crown Court: “They were thinly veiled sites offering the services of male prostitutes.”

When police raided 50-year-old Hawthorn’s Crescent Road home they found business cards, rubber underwear and mobile phones.

The court heard that one of the males Hawthorn offered for sale was a vulnerable 15-year-old boy who he had met via a gay social network site called Bender.

Hawthorn had pretended to be a younger man to attract the teenager, and then met up with him near Mecca Bingo in Bolton, taking him back to his home where they had sex.

The court heard how Hawthorn insisted the boy sign a declaration stating he was over 16 and that any sexual activity he engaged in with others was his own business.

The prosecution said this was Hawthorn’s attempt to claim he operating within the law and not prostituting the boy.

When interviewed by police the boy told how Hawthorn would drive him and other men to visit clients around the country.

“The boy got the impression he was being shown off to clients,” said Mr Blackshaw.

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On one occasion they went to Beverley in Yorkshire where the boy and another man were filmed performing a sex act together while an elderly farmer, said in court to look like Seth from TV soap Emmerdale, filmed them.

The court heard that several of the male prostitutes operated by Hawthorn used drugs.

Hawthorn pleaded guilty to controlling a child prostitute and controlling prostitution for gain as well as breaching a sexual offences prevention order and his sex offender registration.

Rachel Shenton, defending, said Hawthorn cared about the young men he prostituted, insisting they never had unprotected or dangerous sex.

But sentencing him to 10 years in jail, with a further four years of an extended licence, Judge Peter Davies said: “You knew they made the ideal clients for you to maintain and expand your revolting business.”

Det Con Paul Crompton said: “Hawthorn is a repugnant individual who groomed the young boy so that he could sell his body for financial gain.

“I can’t take pleasure in situations like this, conscious of the carnage his offending has left behind, but knowing he has been sentenced and will not be released for many years, is comforting to the police as well as his victims.”

Police commissioner Tony Lloyd said: “The justice system failed Hawthorne's most recent victims because he was able to carry out this horrific abuse after being convicted of incredibly serious crimes.”