POLICE intelligence suggested that a man fatally shot by an armed officer on a motorway was a “highly active criminal”, an inquest has heard.

Yassar Yaqub, 28, was the front seat passenger in one of two cars travelling in convoy on the M62 when four unmarked police vehicles surrounded them at junction 24 at Ainley Top, Huddersfield, as they returned from Bradford on January 2 2017.

An inquest at Leeds Crown Court previously heard that an armed officer leaned out of his car window and fired three shots at Mr Yaqub from 1.5 metres away.

Two of the bullets hit him in the chest and caused “catastrophic blood loss”, jurors were told.

On Wednesday the inquest heard evidence from a West Yorkshire Police officer, referred to as D4 to protect his identity.

The officer confirmed he had been appointed the “strategic firearms commander” of a police operation relating to Mr Yaqub on October 31, 2016 – two months before he was stopped by armed officers on the M62 slip road and shot.

Officer D4 said Operation Fillview was set up in response to intelligence showing Mr Yaqub and another man had been “making threats” to a man called Yasser Adalat.

He confirmed he had granted a “standing authority” for deploying firearms officers in relation to the operation.

A report of the “gold meeting” between officers on October 31 shown to jurors said: “Intelligence indicates that Yassar Yaqub intends to cause serious harm to Yasser Adalat.”

Another document shown to the jury said: “Recent intelligence shows that Yaqub is a highly active criminal.”

The report on the aims of Operation Fillview said: “The overall aim is to deliver sustained public protection through the recovery of firearms and disrupting organised criminality through the recovery of substantial quantities of controlled drugs and cash whilst protecting the right to life of Yasser Adalat.”

An email to Officer D4 from another officer thanked him for granting an “armed authority” for the operation.

Jurors saw Officer D4 had written: “I confirm the authority to deploy armed officers as I have reason to suppose that officers will have to protect themselves from persons who have possession of or immediate access to firearms.”

The officer told jurors he “would have been failing in my duty not to put a plan in place” based on the intelligence, and said Mr Adalat was wanted by police for an unrelated matter.

He said: “We were actively trying to arrest the potential victim, Yasser Adalat, but we couldn’t find that individual so couldn’t put that mitigating action in place.”

On Tuesday, the inquest heard pen portraits of Mr Yaqub from his partner, teenage daughter, sister and father.

Mohammed Yaqub told the hearing his son was “well respected in the community and never out of employment”.

He fought back tears as he said: “He was a natural father, he loved (his children) with his whole heart and taught them to be kind to others.”

The inquest continues.