A pervert has been jailed for six years after he duped a vulnerable teenage girl into becoming a prostitute.

Daniel Gribbin, 43, posed as a young woman in an internet chatroom to persuade the 16-year-old victim to have sex with him for money.

She twice agreed because her mother was seriously ill and she wanted to help out with household bills.

Gribbin drove almost 46 miles in his BMW car from Margate to Maidstone and paid the teenager £50 to have intercourse with him.

A judge told him when he appeared for sentence on Monday: “The impact on this young lady was considerable. She was ashamed. She lost her self-esteem and lost some of her friends.

“She feels degraded and manipulated by you because you took advantage of her and how vulnerable she was.”

Maidstone Crown Court heard that no protection was used on one occasion and the condom split on the other. The girl took the morning after pill both times.

Shaven-haired Gribbin, of Westmarsh Drive, Margate, pretended to be a girl, aged 17, in the chatroom in 2012 and sent the victim a message asking if she wanted to earn some money having sex with men for money.

She then had a phone call from Gribbin, calling himself Dean, and agreed to meet him.

He drove to Maidstone in July 2012 in his “sporty” BMW with front red leather seats. The rear seats had been removed.

They went to a park and Gribbin gave her £50 before they had sex. He gave her an extra £20 to get the morning after pill.

He asked to see her again and she agreed. They met four days later and again had intercourse in the park. They met a third time but nothing sexual happened.

Gribbin denied causing or inciting child prostitution with a girl under the age of 18 and two charges of paying for the sexual services of a child, but was convicted.

He claimed he did not pay the girl for sex but declined to give evidence at his trial.

A sexual offences prevention order was made and his name will appear on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.

The jury heard after conviction that Gribbin had a caution in March 2012 for phoning and texting “sex workers” asking them if they wanted to have intercourse with him.

Judge Martin Joy said he agreed with an assessment that Gribbin presented a danger to the public but he decided not impose an extended sentence.