A 25-YEAR-old man branded a “complete liability to road users” has been jailed for 26 months after causing a head-on collision and driving dangerously while attempting to evade police.
Javid Ali Shan appeared at Bradford Crown Court yesterday where he was sentenced after pleading guilty to a string of driving offences over two separate incidents last year.
The most serious involved causing a head-on collision on the A65 near Skipton in July last year when he drove a Nissan Note on the wrong side of road, crashing straight into an oncoming vehicle at 60mph and injuring its two occupants.
Shan pleaded guilty to aggravating vehicle taking and theft relating to the July crash, as well as dangerous driving and damaging a police vehicle in the December incident.
He also admitted two counts each of driving while disqualified and without insurance.
The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, said of Shan: “You are a complete liability to other road users. You are not fit to drive a car.”
He also disqualified Shan from driving for three years and ordered that he must take a mandatory retest.
The court heard how during both incidents Shan had tested positive for using cannabis.
Andrew Nixon, prosecuting, told the court that the Nissan Note had been stolen earlier and that Shan was driving it with false plates when the accident happened in July.
He said that Shan had swerved onto the other side of the road and was entirely in the wrong lane travelling at 60mph when he hit an oncoming vehicle head on.
The man and woman in the vehicle hit by Shan received injuries, such as bruising and abrasions, with the woman having to take six weeks off work and receive physiotherapy to muscle damage to her shoulder.
Of the December incident involving a police chase, Mr Nixon said: “Officers were despatched to an emergency incident and recognised the vehicle the defendant was driving and tried to pen him in.”
The defendant accelerated and hit the front nearside of the police car causing damage, he added.
A police chase ensued which lasted a “considerable time” with Shan driving at 50mph in 30 and 40 mph zones, the court heard.
Shan told police that he panicked due to the pending court case over the July crash and denied intending to damage the police car, despite driving straight at it.
John Bottomley, for Shan, said that he was married with one child and had his own poultry business employing four people.
As a result of the inevitable jail sentence he had handed the firm over to his brother, but was unsure of its future.
Mr Bottomley added that once Shan had served his jail sentence, he “intends to settle down to a family life”.
In sentencing Shan to 26 months in jail, Judge Durham Hall added: “This demonstrates yet again how serious the offence of dangerous driving is and should be viewed.”
Story courtesy of Craven Herald