A victim of an obsessed stalker said she was left in fear of what he might do next after he made terrifying death threats against her.
Ali Asghar worked in a shop next to where the trainee pharmacist worked in Birmingham.
On one occasion, the 31-year-old victim was approached by Asghar and passed a piece of paper asking her for her phone number, said David Bennett, prosecuting at the city's crown court.
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He said: "She declined to provide it, and the defendant then began following the complainant home to her parents' address where she resided at the time."
Mr Bennett said Asghar would then regularly go to the address and make "unfounded accusations" against her, which resulted in her reporting him to the police and the defendant being made the subject of a restraining order in November 2017 for stalking.
For a period of time, the victim did not see or hear anything from the defendant.
However, the police told her that Asghar would periodically ring them up, making accusations against her and saying he wanted to kill her.
Mr Bennett said that on March 5 this year, he had also made a number of calls to officers, as well as going to Bournville Lane police station, making threats to stab the victim, being abusive towards her and claiming she worked for the police and had been stalking him.
At 12.34am the following day, Asghar contacted the police again to say he was outside the woman's parents' home in Edgbaston and that he wanted to "pour petrol over her and set her on fire, petrol bomb her windows and break her windows."
Officers went to the scene and found the defendant in the driver's seat of his red Nissan Note.
After he refused to get out, they smashed windows, and inside the vehicle, they found a hammer and a brick.
In a statement, the victim said she was "terrified of what the defendant might do to her," describing him as "unhinged."
She said that her parents had to return early from their holiday because of what happened and that she had subsequently moved away from Birmingham.
In passing sentence, Recorder Adineke Balogun said: "This was a serious breach, a blatant breach, in effect announcing the breach to the police by informing them of your intentions towards the complainant. The threats were serious. There were threats to kill and torch the property.
"This has had an effect on almost all aspects of her life regarding her work, studies, training to be a pharmacist, personal relationships and relationships with her and her family."
In sentencing Asghar to a two-year community order and ordering him to do 120 hours of unpaid work, she said she had taken into account his mental health problems and that if sent to prison, it was likely he would come out and start the cycle all over again.
Ashgar, 45, of Storrs Close, Small Heath, had previously admitted breaching a restraining order.
Nicole Steers, defending, said Ashgar had been very unwell at the time, that it was a cry for help and that he had not directly contacted the victim.
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