Help with using the gerund in German

Hey all, I'm brand new to this forum, so I apologize if this question has already been answered here. How exactly do you use the gerund?

The sentence I'm trying to translate is,

"Bärlach continues to pursue Gastmann, while Gastmann continues to spite Bärlach, by committing crime after crime."

My german teacher simply underlined what was incorrect in my sentence:

"Bärlach fährt fort Gastmann nachzujagen, während Gastmann Bärlach zu ärgern fährt fort, indem Verbrechen nach Verbrechen verpflichtend."

Expedient help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

-Jared

Bärlach fährt fort Gastmann nachzujagen, während Gastmann fortfährt Bärlach zu ärgern, indem er Verbrechen nach Verbrechen begeht

(commit = perpetrate = begehen)

Ok. So, it looks to me that instead of using a gerund, you simply used a conjugated/present tense verb (begeht instead of verpflichtend). Thanks for correcting my terrible sentence! Just curious, but are there other ways of using the gerund?

Gerundivum ... Gerundium

Theoretically you can also turn the English "by + gerund" into a German "durch + gerund", i.e.

"Bärlach fährt fort, Gastmann nachzujagen, während Gastmann fortfährt, Bärlach durch Begehen eines Verbrechens nach dem anderen (better: durch das fortgesetzte Begehen von Verbrechen) zu ärgern"

Sounds very stilted though.