A drugged-up driver has been jailed for 18 months after his car struck a van during a police chase – seriously injuring a lift engineer.

William Briggs had cocaine, ketamine and cannabis in his blood when his Ford Focus crashed into the vehicle driven by Christopher Macey, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Mr Macey sustained a fractured left ankle that needed surgery. The injury left him off work for three months.

Briggs, 28, of Lane Ends Terrace, Watergate, Hipperholme, near Brighouse, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving on the afternoon of August 31, 2019.

The court heard he was pursued by West Yorkshire Police after they had spotted him on his phone at the wheel with the car veering in the road.

He was ordered to stop but reversed round the police vehicle and sped off along Denholme Road and Brighouse Road, in the Queensbury area.

After a chase lasting about two minutes, in which Briggs did a U turn over grass, ran red traffic lights and forced other drivers to take evasive action, he collided with Mr Macey’s van at the junction of Brighouse Road and Shaw Lane.

The van was being driven perfectly correctly when Briggs lost control and struck it, the court was told.

Briggs was trapped unconscious in his severely damaged and smoking car while Mr Macey sustained a fractured ankle and spent six weeks in plaster.

He had lost some movement in the leg and the injury had affected his work and his ability to play football.

Briggs had a cocktail of drugs in his blood but he was sentenced separately by the magistrates for those offences.

He received a stand-alone suspended sentence that had now expired, the court heard.

He was currently serving 40 months behind bars for offences of violence.

Briggs had seven previous convictions for 21 offences.

Those offences included causing actual bodily harm, common assault, malicious communication and driving over the limit.

The court heard in mitigation that it was a short pursuit.

It was also pointed out that Mr Macey’s injuries were not the most serious.

Recorder Abdul Iqbal QC said he had shown “flagrant disregard for the rules of the road” and the safety of other drivers.

Briggs had a long history of using unlawful violence and his actions had again left an innocent member of the public seriously injured, the court was told.

Recorder Iqbal demanded answers as to why Briggs had been dealt with for drugs offences that were “part and parcel” of the case separately at the magistrates’ court.

“A seriously aggravating feature of this case goes unpunished,” he said.

He ordered an investigation into why the Crown Prosecution Service allowed it to happen.

“It’s frankly a nonsense,” he stated.

The 18 month sentence will run consecutively to the jail term Briggs is already serving.

He was also banned from driving for a period of three years and five months and until he passes an extended retest.