A SCOT who went on a 7,000-mile “rape tour” of Britain’s universities to target drunken women has been jailed for 12 years.

Tahir Nazir, 40, used Freshers Fortnight and other events to sneak into halls of residence and student digs in Scotland, England and Wales in the hope of targeting undergraduates under the influence of alcohol.

One young woman who had been to a Hallowe’en party in Manchester woke up to find Nazir trying to rape her. In another incident he was seen lying on top of a woman as she lay drunk at student accommodation in Cardiff.

Nazir – who claims to be the managing director of a hospitality and entertainment company – was arrested in November after a group of female undergraduates reported someone trying the doors to their room.

Police found empty packets of Viagra in his car and a fake ID claiming he was a student at Glasgow University.

Prosecutors said he had driven 7,000 miles on a tour of university towns including Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Oxford, Bristol and Cardiff, during which he slept in his car.

Nazir had conducted surveillance on student activities at Victoria Halls of Residence at Manchester University, taking 38 images on his mobile phone.

He also carried out internet searches for “high school girls” and “Freshers Week”.

It emerged he would swallow Viagra tablets and snort cocaine in an attempt to heighten his sexual appetite.

At Manchester Crown Court Nazir, from Glasgow was convicted of trespass with intent to commit an offence, sexual assault, attempted rape, and three charges of trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence.

He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for life.

The court heard he had been a student himself in the 1990s but never graduated despite enrolling on business studies or IT degrees at the University of Dundee, University of the West of Scotland and Strathclyde University.

He claimed to a be a “serial entrepreneur and investor in people” providing “Hollywood- inspired”’ luxury services in the UK and Dubai.

But the divorcee had a “sexual obsession” with students and researched college events where he knew undergraduates would be drunk and incapable of fighting off his advances.

Henry Blackshaw, prosecuting said: “Evidence shows him travelling from Scotland down into England, through England and down into Wales – all part of sexually predatory behaviour targeted at university undergraduate females.

“It was not just targeting them in general – but targeting them within accommodation.

“During the dead of night he broke into accommodation using one device or another, and then having done that, on two of the occasions, sexually attacked females who are asleep in their beds.

“Freshers Week is a time of year when students are full of excitement, getting drunk, no doubt providing easier targets.’’

Nazir denied all the allegations in the trial, saying he had been invited back to the halls by female students in Cardiff and Manchester, and that he was looking for a drug dealer who had ripped him off in another halls.

He claimed his tour of Britain was a motoring “trip of a lifetime”, saying he loved driving and was “inspired by Gothic architecture”.

He said he had fake university ID for getting discounts and used Viagra to give him energy for clubbing.Detective Constable Matt Gregory, of Greater Manchester Police, paid tribute to the courage shown by his victims.

He added: “Not only did Tahir Nazir commit these horrendous offences against his victims but he did it in one of the most intrusive ways possible by attacking them in their own home.

“Nobody should have to worry about being attacked when they are in the sanctity of their own home, they should feel safe and comfortable.”