A man described by prosecutors as an "extremely dangerous" sexual predator was sentenced yesterday to five years of probation for failure to fully comply with Hawai'i's sex offender registry law.

City Deputy Prosecutor Michelle Pu'u asked that the defendant, Harrison Mew, be sent to prison for 10 years. But Circuit Judge Richard Perkins agreed with Mew's attorney that the defendant's offenses were not serious enough to warrant a return to prison.

Mew received a 10-year prison sentence in the 1980s after his conviction in a series of burglaries in the Kahala area that earned him the title of the "Kahala Panty Burglar."

That series of crimes began as low-level thefts but increased in seriousness to break-ins, stalkings and disturbing phone calls to female victims, according to prosecutors.

After serving a prison and parole term, Mew was indicted in 1999 on new sex charges. He pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree sexual assault after police discovered a videotape showing Mew and a co-defendant assaulting a 19-year-old woman who was too drunk to stand without help.

That crime occurred in Mew's Pearl City auto air-conditioning repair shop.

Last year, police served search warrants at his home and business and seized a "large amount of pornographic materials," the prosecutor said yesterday. Mew was later charged with failure to update his registration information on the state's sex offender database.

Mew, 55, pleaded no contest to that charge, admitting that he had access to a vehicle other than the one that was disclosed on the registry.

But Mew's attorney, Todd Eddins, disputed state allegations that Mew also failed to disclose locations other than his principal residence in which he had lived for 10 days or more.

Eddins said Mew had spent a "few nights" at the homes of friends and that no proof to the contrary had been presented to the grand jury that indicted him last year.

Perkins agreed, saying he believed additional supervision by a probation officer for five years was the appropriate punishment. He also imposed a $2,000 fine on Mew.

Eddins described his client as a "hardworking, honest man" who has embarked on a new, growing business venture that now employs about 39 individuals. He said he didn't want to go into details about that business because earlier publicity about Mew had "stigmatized" his auto air-conditioning business.

But state business records show that Mew's auto air-conditioning repair business license was revoked by the state in 2000 because of his "failure to comply with a child support order."

Last year, Mew was fined $5,000 by Circuit Judge Gary W.B. Chang for continuing to operate the business after his license was revoked, according to court records.

He also was ordered to pay more than $3,100 in restitution to two customers who claimed that Mew charged them for work that they had not authorized and that he had not completed.

One of the customers said in a sworn affidavit that he was threatened by Mew after protesting the unauthorized charges.

Mew did not dispute that allegation or the charge that he was operating his business without the necessary license.

Joanne Uchida of the state Regulated Industries Complaints Office said yesterday that Mew has not yet paid the $5,000 fine. It could not be determined if he has repaid the customers.

Attempts to obtain comment from Eddins and Mew yesterday were unsuccessful.

State business records show that Mew's new business venture is a company called Hidden Hawai'i Inc., which Mew incorporated in October 2006. The company's Web site offers "off the beaten path" travel adventures in the Islands and books off-road biking and pipe buggy tours as well as big-game fishing and personal watercraft rentals.

According to state business registration files, the company operates from the same Waihona Street address that Mew lists as his residence on the state sex offender registry.

Reach Jim Dooley at jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com.