A police officer had to jump out of the way when a panicking man drove at him to try and escape.

Aqeel Zaman narrowly missed the officer. His Honda Civic then hit the back of a police Land Rover.

Zaman, 23, drove off with the front bumper of his car hanging off, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Prosecutor Simon Haring said officers saw the Honda parked at the junction of Stratford Road and Waverley Road, Great Horton, on December 28 last year and recognised the defendant.

An officer approached on foot and asked Zaman to open the door. But the engine was started up and the car was driven at the officer. Zaman was arrested the next day.

Yunus Valli, Zaman’s barrister, said it was a very short piece of driving “in circumstances where he panicked”. He acted on impulse from peer pressure in the vehicle.

Judge Roger Thomas QC, the Recorder of Bradford, told Zaman, who pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, that he had damaged a police vehicle and put an officer’s life in danger. But he said the officer had done him a favour by going out of his way to say he had perfectly civil contact with him in the past.

Zaman, of Kirkham Road, Great Horton, Bradford, was sentenced to a 12-month Intensive Community Order, with supervision, 100 hours’ unpaid community work and 50 days of high level activity work. He was disqualified from driving for 12 months and ordered to take an extended driving test.