A British “sex pest” police officer who used the national police computer system to target women has been jailed for 15 months.

Matthew Daniel Fisher, 37, was found guilty of sexual assaults on two women he was supposed to be helping when he served with the North Yorkshire Police.

He also admitted two charges of misconduct in a public office after engaging in sexual activity with a woman in a police van outside Selby bus station and having sexual contact with another woman who was on a night out while he was on duty.

Judge Michael Mettyear yesterday said he accepted that married father-of-two Fisher had done good, even brave, work as a police officer. But he told him: “You let yourself down, let your family down and let the police force down.”

The judge told Fisher in the Hull Crown Court: “Anybody who took your eye and attracted you, you wanted to make contact with in the hope of sexual activity.”

Jurors heard the twice-married officer would meet women while he was on patrol in the Selby area and flirt with them, often offering his sexual services in their own homes. Some of the sexual contact was consensual while other acts were not, the judge was told.

The court heard how one of Fisher’s sex assaults involved him putting a woman’s hand on his penis when she asked for a lift. The woman was an alcoholic drug user and was clearly vulnerable.

Judge Mettyear said: “You couldn’t resist trying it on with her. It was extremely bad conduct by you.”

Fisher was also convicted by the jury of assaulting a pub landlady by pulling up her top to look at her breasts and putting her hand on his groin. The judge said the woman had got fed up with Fisher’s constant suggestive and inappropriate behaviour whenever he came in contact with her. He told him he was making a nuisance of himself “as a sex pest”.

The judge said he regarded Fisher’s misuse of the police computer system as a serious offence but accepted there had been much worse examples which had led to officers derailing whole investigations.