Cab driver could face jail over bombarding socialite with 1,000 phone and text messages
A BLACK cab driver has been warned he could be jailed after bombarding socialite Jemima Khan with more than 1,000 phone calls and messages.
Hassan Mahhmood, 27, is said to have got the 43-year-old journalist’s phone number when she booked a ride through the Hailo app.
His barrister, Umar Ali, said the taxi driver was a “big fan” of Khan because of her marriage to his hero, Pakistan cricket legend Imran Khan.
Isleworth Crown Court heard the campaigner agreed to a photograph with Mahhmood after he picked up her and friends from a jazz club on June 16 last year.
Days later Mahhmood began a year-long campaign of harassment, using 18 different mobile phones to send 203 text messages, make 1,182 phone calls and send “loads of” WhatsApp messages.
Mahhmood, from Waltham Forest, north-east London, pleaded guilty to a charge of harassment without violence between June 16 last year and July 18 this year.
He pleaded not guilty to a more serious charge of stalking the campaigner, which was allowed to lie on file.
In a victim impact statement, Khan, who is the daughter of late billionaire entrepreneur Sir James Goldsmith and the sister of MP Zac Goldsmith, said: “The incident has made me incredibly anxious at times.”
Mr Ali, mitigating, said none of the messages were of a threatening nature.
“He was a very big fan of Jemima Khan, who was married to a very influential person in Pakistan – a very big sports personality,” he said.
Judge Martin Edmunds QC adjourned sentencing to October 26, telling Mahhmood he could face jail.