A city bank worker has been jailed for stalking a Brighton doctor and subjecting her to a four-month campaign of terror.
Al Amin Dhalla, 42, was given an indeterminate jail sentence at Lewes Crown Court this afternoon (Friday 29 June).
Judge Charles Kemp said that he should serve a minimum of six years before he can be considered for release. He has already served 14 months on remand.
The judge also gave orders to destroy the obsessive Canadian’s haul of weapons – including an air rifle, pistol and crossbows – and made him the subject of a restraining order. He will be deported to Canada after serving his sentence.
Dhalla was sentenced today after being found guilty by a jury in February of arson, aggravated harassment, theft, criminal damage and trying to pervert the course of justice.
He stalked 35-year-old trainee doctor Alison Hewitt after she ended their relationship and harassed Miss Hewitt’s mother Pamela Hewitt.
He set fire to Pamela Hewitt’s Buckinghamshire home and tried to set fire to a police station.
He was arrested twice in three days – the second time by armed police who believe they averted Miss Hewitt from serious danger.
On passing sentence Judge Kemp said: “From the outset of your relationship with Miss Alison Hewitt you lied about your age, how long you had been in the country and your origins, claiming that you were an orphan when clearly you were not.
“You would not accept the ending of your relationship with Alison and set about a campaign to win her back, harassing both her and her mother, Mrs Pamela Hewitt.
“And as time went on this campaign became more sinister and serious involving setting fire with the use of accelerants to Pamela Hewitt’s home and masquerading as a doctor at the hospital where her daughter worked.”
Judge Kemp accepted the report by Dhalla’s probation officer stating that Dhalla had a narcissistic personality, was a rejected stalker and posed a high risk of reoffending.
Dhalla was arrested by Sussex Police after bombarding Miss Hewitt with obsessive messages, sending malicious letters to her employers and having her followed by a private detective.
He began harassing her after she broke off their relationship when he was exposed as having told a series of lies about his identity.
His sinister actions quickly escalated and he plotted to take revenge against Miss Hewitt and her family, blaming them for the breakdown of the relationship.
The London-based bank auditor met Miss Hewitt in November 2009 through an online dating agency called the Executive Club of St James which had a £9,000 joining fee and targeted high-earning professionals.
