DEATH CRASH MENACE FACES 8 MORE CHARGES
Taxi driver’s killer gets 5 years added to ban
A DRIVER was back in court on motoring offences yesterday nine years after he killed a dad of three in a crash.
Halim Cholmeley was jailed for six years and banned from the roads for 10 years for causing the death of taxi driver Gavin McCabe in Dundee in 2009.
At the time, he told bystanders he deliberately drove into the cab in an attempt to end his own life.
Cholmeley applied to the DVLA to get his licence back in 2016, three years after his release from prison but four before the ban expired.
Yesterday, a court heard one was issued by mistake but it did not mean he was legally allowed to drive.
Cholmeley was subsequently arrested and taken to court for a string of offences.
He was jailed last month for six months after admitting driving without a licence or insurance and failing to provide a breath sample between March 2016 and October 2017.
During one trip, he took a £50,000 Audi for a two-day test drive.
Yesterday, Cholmeley, 43, reappeared from custody for sentence on a further eight charges that were deferred for background reports.
They related to various other road traffic offences, including driving without insurance.
He was disqualified from driving for a further five years in total, ordered to do 280 hours of unpaid work and placed on a tag under a home curfew for 11 months on his release from prison.
He was admonished on five of the charges.
Forfar Sheriff Court heard that in June 2016, Cholmeley, of Glen Prosen, Angus, applied to the DVLA for a new licence. It was later granted.
Billy Boyle, defending him, said: “He made the mistake of not going to the court to apply to get his licence back. Instead, he went directly to the DVLA in Swansea where there was an administrative muddle.
“He is fully aware of the consequences of his actions.”
Sentencing Cholmeley, Sheriff Alison McKay said: “The offences are unusual in that you have been driving when you weren’t allowed but you applied for a licence and even had a medical.
“Custody was an option in this case, but I have given you the benefit of the doubt.”
In the 2009 crash, Cholmeley took the keys to his girlfriend’s BMW without permission after an evening of drinking.
He crashed into the side of the taxi being driven by Gavin, 41, who sustained fatal head injuries.
Gavin’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 Gavin’s death by driving dangerously, and also pled guilty to taking the BMW without consent and driving while banned and without insurance.