Queensland sex offender caught in NSW

NSW police have caught a dangerous sex offender who fled Brisbane after cutting off his GPS tracking device.

Authorities monitoring Christopher Charles Gardner lost track of him on Friday after he ditched the device in the Wacol area.

It's believed Gardner broke free of his supervised unit at 2.30am and by 4am a public alert had been issued.

His girlfriend is believed to be the driver of a getaway car that collected him from the side of Wacol Station Road.

At 10am (AEST), Queensland police said he'd been caught in NSW.

He was caught in the town of Murwillumbah and was being held at the watch house at Byron Bay Police Station. 

Gardner had served seven years behind bars for various violent and sexual crimes, and was subject to ongoing monitoring under the Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act.

Under new Queensland laws, dangerous sex offenders who remove their tracking devices face jail terms of up to five years.

This escape and removal of a GPS tracking device by a dangerous sex offender is the eight in Queensland since 2011.

Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said "no technology is infallible".