A convicted sex offender who was registered in Round Lake Park but moved to Fox Lake without notifying officials was sentenced to two years in prison Monday.

John Cate, 36, pleaded guilty to failure to register as a sex offender during a hearing before Lake County Associate Judge George Bridges.

Assistant State's Attorney Brett Henne said Cate was homeless and registering weekly with the Round Lake Park police in early 2009. However, on Aug. 25, a Fox Lake police officer who had seen Cate entering and leaving a room in the Marina Hotel on Route 12 obtained a warrant for his arrest.

Cate was convicted of a sex offense against a teenage girl in Georgia in 2005, and served a prison sentence there.

At the time of his arrest in Fox Lake, Cate was awaiting trial on disorderly conduct charges for phoning a bomb threat to a Round Lake Park trailer park and for failing to register as a sex offender in that village for several weeks.

Henne said convictions on both charges were entered and Cate was sentenced to time served in jail.

A charge of applying tattoos without a license was dropped in exchange for his guilty plea.