SPEEDING drivers are turning Leeds Road into a racetrack, a Bradford judge told a danger driver he was locking up for nine months.

Bank employee Bilal Akhtar was spotted by the police doing double the speed limit on the “busy and important road into the heart of this city” shortly before 9pm on April 14.

Akhtar, 26, of Leeds Road, was in the £11,500 Volkswagen Golf he had saved up to buy, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Prosecutor Philip Adams said that Akhtar, the son of a driving instructor, had no previous convictions and a clean driving licence when officers in a marked patrol car saw him speeding past in the opposite direction.

He was pursued at 60mph as he overtook slower vehicles, forcing drivers to brake as he cut in front of them.

When he reached the Shell petrol station, Akhtar began to overtake a Peugeot being driven by a woman with her partner and two young children on board.

Mr Adams said that Akhtar was confronted by a learner driver heading straight at him.

The Peugeot driver swerved to avoid a collision but the Golf struck the front of her car.

Akhtar kept going along Birksland Street but stopped shortly afterwards and was apprehended.

Mr Adams said Leeds Road was busy at the time with pedestrians and traffic.

Akhtar’s barrister, Shufqat Khan, said he was worried about being caught speeding and “escalated matters.”

Mr Khan conceded that it was “a terrible, horrendous piece of driving.”

But Akhtar did come to his senses and stop the car.

He was a hard-working bank employee who gave up his spare time to raise money for charity and to coach youngsters at a boxing academy.

Akhtar had not finished paying for the Golf and he had since sold it, losing out financially.

He was genuinely remorseful and felt real shame and regret, Mr Khan said.

Akhtar came from a law-abiding family. “The irony is not lost on him. His father is a driving instructor,” Mr Khan told the court.

Judge Jonathan Rose said that Akhtar had an exemplary previous character.

But the judge highlighted the problem with speeding drivers on Leeds Road.

“It is a busy and important road into the heart of this city and you, and people like you, have come to think that it is something of a racetrack,” he said.

And Judge Rose reiterated his warning that drivers who don’t stop for the police will be jailed. “When the blue lights come on, you stop, and if you don’t, custody is the inevitable outcome,” he said.

He told Akhtar: “You could have killed four people in that car.”

Akhtar was banned from driving for 34 months.