A JUDGE has hit out at the two-year maximum sentence for dangerous driving when jailing a drugged-up driver who injured two police officers in an appalling high-speed pursuit down the eastbound M62 in a rusting Ford Transit.

Bradford Crown Court heard today that Luke Adair deliberately reversed into a police car while uninsured and unlicensed in a vehicle with holes in the bottom and a tyre so bald that the cord was exposed.

Jailing him for 22 months, Judge Andrew Hatton said: "If Members of Parliament actually heard the details of cases like these they would question the wholly inadequate two-year maximum sentence for dangerous driving.”

The court heard that Adair, 27, of York Road, Leeds, was on bail at the time for another offence of dangerous driving, committed in November, 2020. He was jailed for 18 months for that and had now served that sentence.

On October 21 last year, police officers on patrol on the M62 eastbound were informed that there was a Ford Transit travelling on the motorway on cloned plates.

Adair sped away from them near Junction 22, reaching 90mph, veering off the motorway and around a roundabout, before rejoining it.

He then slowed to a stop on the hard shoulder and a passenger threw himself out and walked off, the court was told.

Adair then reversed down the motorway into a police car before speeding off again.

He was doing 70mph and veering across the lanes before hitting a lamppost. The van swerved 180 degrees across the hard shoulder, flew through the air and landed on its roof.

Adair was pulled out by the police and other emergency services took over.

The court heard that the van was in very bad condition, with severe rust, holes in the underneath and a tyre so bald that the cord was exposed. It was uninsured and Adair had only a provisional driving licence.

He made no comment when questioned by the police but went on to plead guilty in the magistrates’ court to dangerous driving, driving with 6.8 micrograms per litre of Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabino (THC) in his blood, assaulting the two police officers by delibe-ately driving at them in the pursuit, doing at least £12,000 damage to a police BMW X5, and driving unlicensed and uninsured. The court heard that the two police officers suffered lower back injuries and had still been in pain months afterwards. One had sustained nerve damage and needed physiotherapy.

Adair had 15 previous convictions for 22 offences, including the earlier dangerous driving offence, aggravated vehicle taking and driving while unlicensed and uninsured.

His barrister, Howard Shaw, conceded in mitigation that it was’ an appalling piece of driving’ by a man with a criminal record.

Since committing the offence, Adair had been jailed for another piece of dangerous driving and now ‘in a very different place,’ Mr Shaw said.

He was extremely sorry for injuring the police officers and ‘feels horrible about it,’ the court was told.

Since his release from jail, he had made great efforts to conquer his alcohol and drugs misuse. His supervising probation officer said he had engaged well and custody at this stage would not be beneficial.

Mr Shaw pointed to the very real progress Adair had made since serving the sentence and urged the court to allow him to continue with that with a community penalty.

But Judge Hatton said that Adair was on bail and under the influence of drugs and had a passenger in the van for part of the time. These were all aggravating features of what was ‘a sustained, persistent and extremely dangerous piece of driving.’ He had veered across the lanes on the motorway at excessive speed, left to go round the roundabout and rejoined the M62, then reversed down the carriageway into the police vehicle.

He had then accelerated away again before hitting a lamppost. Both police officers were injured in the pursuit and damage caused.

Adair was jailed for 14 months for dangerous driving, six months for injuring the police officers and two months for drug driving, the sentences to run consecutively.

He was banned from driving for six years and he was already under orders to pass an extended retest before he could apply for a licence.