A DAD who stalked his estranged wife even though he had been banned from contacting her has been given a suspend jail sentence and told he must stay out of Chippenham.

Arben Morina followed the woman to work and repeatedly drove past her house just months after being released from prison for similar matters.

The 48-year-old even jumped the fence at her Chippenham home to move items around in the garden.

But after hearing he now accepts the relationship is over and is living in Trowbridge, a judge imposed a suspended sentence.

Morina, of Sparrow Street, Trowbridge, pleaded guilty to stalking between July 9 and September 12 last year.

Neil King, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how the defendant had struggled to cope with the breakdown of the marriage.

In November 2017 he was jailed for 20 weeks for breaching a restraining order for a second time in short order.

In July last year the woman noticed that her ex was repeatedly following her on her morning commute, making her change her route and timings.

That behaviour was not said to breach the restraining order, which ended on July 25. Within days his wife was called by the estate agent saying someone had been seen on a ladder at the garden fence.

She fitted CCTV and over the following weeks recorded footage of him outside the house.

On one occasion he pulled the hose reel out in the garden and also gesticulated to the camera.

Michael Harrison, defending, said “He now accepts he must not have anything to do with his wife.”

The couple were married in the Albanian capital Tirana and Morina now hopes to return there to divorce.

At the time of the offending he said he was frustrated as he wanted the house to be sold.

He has just started a job as an HGV driver working in Cirencester earning about £500 a week.

Passing sentence Judge Robert Pawson “You are 48. You are still married to your wife, who is also sadly your victim in this case.

“It is quite clear that the marriage sadly appears to be in ruins. You found it difficult, if not impossible, to accept that and it is as a consequence of that that over the course of the last two years or so there have been various court orders to prevent you from pursuing, to put it generally, your wife.”

He imposed a four-month jail term suspended for 18 months with 30 days rehabilitation activity requirement, and a restraining order to not contact her and stay out of parts of Chippenham

“If you breach it you will go to prison and it will be a sentence likely to measured in years rather than months, make no mistake,” he warned Morina.