A businessman, who groomed a 14-year-old schoolboy for sex, was last night starting a jail sentence.

Robin Jones, 49, who is married with children, collected the teenager, who was wearing his uniform, at the gates of his school in the Bradford district, the city’s Crown Court was told yesterday.

He drove the schoolboy to moors, where various sexual acts took place between them, before dropping the youngster back at his school gates.

Prosecutor Rupert Doswell told the court the boy had communicated online to older men and had met two of them, including the defendant. They had communicated with each other on several occasions before meeting up.

Mr Doswell said: “This defendant suggested meeting up for sex. The defendant collected him from outside his school gates. The complainant was wearing his school uniform.”

He said Jones took the boy on to moors, where they kissed and undressed each other and sex acts took place. The defendant then dropped the boy back at his school gates.

Police were informed by his parents when they were made aware of sex abuse allegations.

Jones’s solicitor, Timothy Jacobs, told the court the boy had suffered at the hands of a number of men.

“This defendant was not the worst, nor was he a repeated offender. He feels shame and remorse for what he has done,” said Mr Jacobs.

He said Jones, who had no previous convictions, did not seek to blame the boy for his actions, which took place in November last year.

The initial contact came on a gay website and the profile created by the boy suggested he was 19, Mr Jacobs said.

“At some point it was disclosed the complainant was 14. It should have stopped there, but it didn’t.”

He said there was one mutually-agreed meeting and immediately following the encounter the defendant felt regret.

“There were efforts by the boy to carry on contact. The defendant did not do so. He realised very quickly that what he had done was completely wrong.”

Jones, of Rawthorpe Lane, Huddersfield, pleaded guilty to three charges of sexual activity with a child and one of sexual grooming.

He was jailed for 30 months, ordered to sign the sex offenders register and made subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

Mr Jacobs told the court Jones had voluntarily sought professional counselling.

He added: “At the age of 49, a man of no previous convictions, with a family and a business, he has a lot to lose.”

But his parents, wife and children had expressed a desire to stand by him.