Thug arrested in Scotland just days after being thrown out of UK

A violent offender who was deported to Romania after a series of crimes in Scotland was found back in Dundee just 17 days after being thrown out of the country.

Chef Dragos Henter was jailed last year for 32 months after threatening to slice a woman's face to make her look like The Joker from the Batman films.

Henter carried out a four-year campaign of harassment against a partner and was later caught in jail with a number of illicit sim cards.

He was described as a danger to the public and was eventually deported back to his home country on 21 August this year after completing his prison sentences.

But by 7 September, Henter had managed to sneak back into the UK and was found to be driving around Dundee late at night while he was drunk.

Officers who pulled him over carried out checks and found out that he had given them a false name. Further checks showed that he had come back to Scotland illegally.

Henter, 32, was jailed for four months after he admitted the driving offence last month and he was back in the dock at Dundee Sheriff Court on Friday to admit the immigration offence.

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He admitted knowingly entering the UK by unknown means, in breach of a deportation order, and being found in Commercial Street, Dundee, on 7 September 2024.

A source close to the case said Henter had told officials that he had spent around £10,000 to get smuggled back into the UK to return to his wife and children.

When he was quizzed by police, Henter told them that he planned to keep coming back to Scotland every time he got deported to Romania.

The court heard he has several previous convictions including domestic assaults, bullying and coercive control, prison breaches, and possession of offensive weapons.

Henter was jailed for 32 months for attacking Alison Bruce in a restaurant and had a further 163 days added for having three illicit sim cards inside Perth Prison.

He pinned Ms Bruce down on a restaurant floor at knifepoint during a four-year campaign of violence and controlling abuse.

He was banned from forming any new relationship with a woman without informing social workers. Henter was ordered to stay away from Ms Bruce for five years.

Sheriff Carmichael said: 'You are assessed as posing a danger. The charges represent a course of conduct of domestic abuse by you.

'This abuse included several assaults, punching and striking her on the head, seizing her by the hair, holding a knife against her stomach and threatening to stab her and slash her face.

'You admitted jealous and controlling behaviour, monitoring her mobile phone and her movements. She sustained a broken rib which did not repair properly and a perforated eardrum.

'A custodial sentence is needed in order to adequately reflect society's disapproval of this type of conduct, to punish you, and to deter others from similar behaviour.'

Henter pulled a kitchen knife with a ten-inch blade on taxi driver Ms Bruce during a four-year campaign of bullying against her.

The court was told that the chef de partie grabbed the handbrake and steering wheel of her car repeatedly as she drove him from Dundee to Perth.

Ms Bruce was so terrified of what her partner might do that when they went on a walk up Kinnoull Hill in Perth she stayed away from the edge in case he shoved her over it.

Henter admitted a series of charges against Ms Bruce covering a period from Valentine's Day 2018, until he was caught with a knuckle duster on 28 January 2022.

Henter admitted assaulting Ms Bruce to her injury by punching her on the head in Glasgow in February 2018.

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He admitted attacking her in Dundee later in 2018 by punching her on the body to her severe injury, and striking her on the head to her injury during the same year.

Henter admitted that between 1 April 2019 and 13 May 2020 he subjected his then partner to a campaign of violent bullying and controlling behaviour.

Fiscal depute Gavin Burton told the court: 'On a journey to go for a walk on Kinnoull Hill, he began grabbing the wheel of the car and threatening to make them crash.

'When they got to Kinnoull Hill, he asked about Billy, who was someone she had had a drink with. When they got to the top of the hill she made sure not to go near the edge because she was so worried about what he might do.

'He would constantly check up on her and monitor her movements when she was away from home. He would repeatedly call wanting to know where she was.

'He would act aggressively and call her abusive names. He would threaten her with violence. On three occasions he smashed her phones when she got a message from a male asking for a taxi.

'She ended up buying cheap phones as she could not afford to keep replacing them. In October 2019 she went out for drinks with another taxi driver.'

Ms Bruce asked Henter for a lift home, but he drove her to the Don Michelle restaurant where he worked at the time and opened it up to let them in.

Mr Burton said: 'The accused went to the kitchen and came back with a knife with an eight-to-ten-inch blade. He grabbed her hair with one hand and held the knife to her stomach and throat and threatened to stab her.'

During February 2020, she was parked in her taxi outside the restaurant when Henter came out and told her he would slash her if she spoke to other men.

The fiscal depute added: 'He said that if he ever saw her speaking to another male he would get a screwdriver from his car and slash her across the face to make her look like The Joker. This made her extremely distressed.'