Pervert Penicuik snack bar owner offered schoolgirl £30 'for sex'

A snack bar owner who told a schoolgirl he would pay her £30 to have sex with him has avoided a prison sentence.

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Asim Akram, 28, was said to have left the 15-year-old “horrified” after he made the sick proposal over the Snapchat app in 2019.

The pervert also asked the youngster to be his girlfriend and left her “uncomfortable” by chatting about sex when the business was quiet.

Akram offered the schoolgirl £30 for sex

The teenager quit her job at the Thriller Griller snack bar in Penicuik, Midlothian, and after telling her mother what had happened during her employment the police were called in.

Akram pleaded guilty to making sexual and indecent remarks to the youngster which caused her alarm and distress at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

Sheriff Adrian Cottam issued a conduct requirement banning him from contacting the girl for the next 18 months.

He said: “I had heard the nature of the offence on the last occasion and you will appreciate how serious is this.

“The choice quite simply is to punish you by a short sentence in prison or looking at rehabilitation to try and stop you doing this sort of thing again.

“In the circumstances as an alternative to sending you to prison I will impose a community payback order.”

The sheriff also placed Akram on a supervision order and the Sex Offenders Register for 18 months.

The sleazy snack bar boss was also ordered to carry out 160 hours of unpaid work in the community.

The court previously heard Akram was owner and sole operator of the Thriller Griller snack bar at the Eastfield Industrial Estate in Penicuik.

Fiscal Sarah Noon said the accused had advertised for staff on Facebook in September 2019 and the 15-year-old girl was employed to work between 9am and 3pm.

After adding the girl on Snapchat Akram soon began sending her messages asking her to be his girlfriend.

The court was told he also talked to the girl about sex when the business was quiet which made the youngster “uncomfortable”.

And when the teenager told Akram she was leaving the job to earn more money elsewhere he messaged her on Snapchat saying he would give her £30 in exchange for sex if she was “that desperate”.

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