Ourimbah: Abufaz Hosseini, 36, hid Apple AirTag in girlfriend’s boot to track where she went

A man hid an Apple AirTag in the boot of his girlfriend’s car because he suspected she was cheating and later said he didn’t think he’d done anything wrong, a court has heard.

Abufaz (Also known as Abolfazi) Hosseini, right, leaving Wyong Local Court with his lawyer (left), after being convicted of stalking his girlfriend by putting an AirTag in the boot of her car. Picture: NewsLocal.

A man has narrowly avoided jail after pleading guilty to trying to track his girlfriend’s movements with an AirTag and terrifying her at a service station, a court has heard.

Abufaz Hosseini, who also goes by the first name Abolfazi, faced Wyong Local Court on Wednesday where he pleaded guilty to one count of stalking and two counts of failing to comply with reporting obligations.

An agreed set of facts states the 36-year-old met a woman at a festival last year and commenced an intimate relationship.

A short time later he moved into her Ourimbah address but after three months, towards the end of January, the woman began “attempting to end the relationship with the accused, as his behaviour towards her was becoming unsettling”.

During the first week of February the victim began noticing several notifications on her iPhone stating “AirTag detected near you” with a map tracing her movements.

The woman initially dismissed AirTag notifications because she didn’t know what they were. (File image)

Given she had no knowledge of Apple AirTags she “dismissed them” until a family member saw another notification on February 5 and told her she was being tracked in her car.

“The victim searched her vehicle,” the facts state.

Abufazi (also known as Abolfazi) Hosseini, right, leaving Wyong Local Court with his lawyer (left), after being convicted of stalking his girlfriend by putting an AirTag in the boot of her car. Picture: NewsLocal.

“The pair opened the boot, locating the ‘Apple AirTag’ concealed at the bottom right hand side of a small storage compartment. Upon locating the ‘Apple AirTag’ the victim recorded a video and sent it to a friend, asking her knowledge about the item.”

The victim confronted Hosseini about the AirTag who said he installed the device because he believed she was unfaithful to him.

She gave him three weeks to find somewhere else to live.

On February 18 the woman was sitting in the passenger seat of a friend’s car at the United service station at Ourimbah when they noticed Hosseini “staring at her enraged”.

“The victim asked the witness to drive away from their parking spot, causing the accused to run towards the vehicle,” the facts state.

“The accused latched onto the door handle of the victim’s passenger side door and opened it, yelling at her while hanging from the vehicle as it proceeded forward. After driving for several metres, the accused lost his grip on the vehicle allowing the victim and witness to escape a short distance away.”

She reported it to police who arrested Hosseini and took him back to Wyong Police Station where he “made full admissions to installing and using the ‘Apple Airtag’ in the vehicle of the victim as he believed she was unfaithful to him” and approaching the car at the service station screaming at her.

The court heard Hosseini had also failed to report a change of address and who he was living with to police, which were court-imposed conditions of a previous, unrelated offence for which he had served six months jail.

The court heard Hosseini was later interviewed by Community Corrections to compile a sentence assessment report in which he was “unremorseful”, didn’t think he had done anything wrong and “blamed” the victim for allegedly cheating.

The Crown prosecutor argued Hosseini should go to jail for the “significant stalking-like behaviour” and that police believed his conduct towards the victim was “escalating”.

Magistrate Robert Munro put Hosseini on a community correction order for 12 months and fined him $2500.