A SEX offender could learn that he is to be deported when he returns to court to be sentenced for his crimes.

Officials are checking on Zimbabwean criminal Trevor Tarirah's immigration status ahead of his next appearance.

Tarirah was due to be sentenced at Teesside Crown Court yesterday for plying a woman with vodka and taking indecent pictures of her.

But Judge Leslie Spittle adjourned the case after being told there was some confusion surrounding the 31-year-old's presence in the UK.

The case will return to court on Friday, June 2, when Judge Spittle will consider an application by prosecutors to have Tarirah deported.

Tarirah was convicted last month of two charges of voyeurism and theft in relation to an incident on a Virgin train bound for Darlington.

A 21-year-old woman who was travelling to meet her boyfriend was befriended by Tarirah, who gave her alcohol and may have spiked the drink with a date-rape drug.

Police believe Tarirah also tried to steal the woman's mobile phone - on which she had taken a photograph of him - and her bank card during the journey on December 3, 2004.

After Tarirah was arrested at Darlington railway station, police searched his laptop computer and found hundreds of pictures of women's private parts.

It is thought that the pervert was involved in a bizarre trans-Atlantic competition, in which he and another man collected and rated such indecent images.

Tarirah, of Holmes Road, Earley, Reading, told police he was a surgeon at St Thomas's Hospital, in London, and his victim that he was a cancer specialist and had treated the mother of US rapper Jay-Z, in New York.

After he was found guilty, Tarirah was described by British Transport Police constable Gary Heseltine as "a well-spoken, clever, manipulative conman".

It then emerged that he had convictions for dishonesty and had been jailed for nine months for a wounding offence.

Yesterday, he was told that a notice under Section 6 of the Immigration Act 1971 will be served on him, which could result in his deportation.

It was also revealed yesterday that Tarirah could stand trial in Reading in July for an offence of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

The charge arises from an incident in which an explosion ripped through his Berkshire home and blew windows 60ft away last October.

Tarirah was found unconscious in the bedroom of the house by firefighters and taken to hospital.

Police in Reading will be asked to supply the court on Teesside with Tarirah's passport so it can be established how long he was allowed to stay in the UK.