A killer driver stamped on his former partner’s mobile phone before plaguing her with unwanted messages during a month-long stalking campaign.
Halim Cholmeley, 50, from Angus, caused his victim fear and alarm by turning up at her home uninvited and storming in without her permission.
Cholmeley – who was jailed for six years for the death of a Dundee taxi driver – has been placed on a community payback order with 12 months supervision.
Stalking campaign
Dundee Sheriff Court was told Cholmeley grabbed his estranged partner’s mobile phone during a row at her home in St Andrews on July 23 last year.
The court was told he repeatedly stamped on the phone and caused fear or alarm to his victim and two children who also witnessed the incident.
He admitted acting in a threatening or abusive manner and stalking the woman by waging a campaign of harassment against her between August 31 and October 7 2023.
Cholmeley admitted engaging in a course of conduct by repeatedly and persistently phoning, texting and sending her unwanted social media messages.
He admitted sending an unwanted gift to her work before turning up at her home and entering it uninvited.
He also admitted breaching bail by contacting her repeatedly.
Sentencing, Sheriff Jillian Martin-Brown said she was taking a positive social work report into account and was following the recommendation to impose a non-custodial sentence.
Litany of past crimes
Cholmeley was jailed for six years and banned from the road for a decade for driving into a taxi and killing Gavin McCabe in 2009.
At the time, he told bystanders he deliberately drove into the cab in an attempt to end his own life.
He took the keys to his girlfriend’s BMW without permission after an evening of drinking and crashed into the side of the taxi being driven by Mr McCabe, 41, who sustained fatal head injuries.
The taxi cab’s passenger, Azeez Butali, 33, who was picked up in Perth, suffered serious injuries and had to be cut from the wreckage.
Cholmeley admitted causing death by driving dangerously and taking the BMW without consent, driving while banned and without insurance.
After his release from prison, Cholmeley was caught driving without a licence or insurance.
He also admitted failing to provide a breath sample and was jailed for six months.
He was also banned from driving for a further five years, ordered to do 280 hours of unpaid work and placed on a tag for 11 months upon his release.
A DVLA probe was launched after it emerged he was given back his driving licence four months early.
Cholmeley has also been convicted of attacking a man outside Forfar Academy by punching him in the face and was fined £500.
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