AN “arrogant” driver who led police on a dangerous chase through Bradford streets before abandoning his car has been jailed for 21 months and banned from driving for almost six years.

But after hearing at Bradford Crown Court of Faizal Bahadur’s lengthy list of previous convictions for traffic offences – including being jailed for dangerous driving – His Honour Judge Jonathan Rose expressed frustration that he was only able to hand down a maximum two-year sentence with a reduction to reflect Bahadur’s early guilty plea.

Prosecutor Celine Kart said police officers on patrol in an unmarked car saw a grey Mercedes CLA 220 push past them and back into queuing traffic several vehicles ahead of theirs on Cemetery Road in Lidget Green at about 3pm on May 11, 2023.

Video footage played in court showed what happened next.

As the traffic began to move they saw the Mercedes pull out into the middle of the road to overtake standing traffic, which prompted the officers to illuminate their blue lights and begin to follow it.

Bahadur then accelerated, continuing to overtake other cars whilst weaving in and out of traffic, driving on the wrong side of the road and mounting the kerb, which forced other drivers to swerve out of the way.

The Mercedes turned into Legrams Lane, continued to weave in and out of traffic, accelerated and turned right into Horton Grange Road.

With the police still in pursuit, the car reached speeds of 60mph in a 30mph residential area, jumped a red stop light, and hit another vehicle whilst being driven “erratically”.

As Bahadur drove onto Ivanhoe Road, he turned into an alleyway running behind Horton Grange Road. He then jumped out and ran away, leaving the car without its handbrake applied so that it rolled out of control down the road, only stopping when it collided with a wall and a lamp post.

After a brief chase on foot Bahadur was caught by one of the police officers and arrested.

Mitigating for Bahadur, 37, of Horton Grange Road, Abdul Shakoor said he was en-route to collect his stepson on the day in question and had taken his wife’s car to do so.

However, Bahadur was already subject to a three-year driving ban.

In sentencing Bahadur, Judge Rose noted his many previous convictions for motoring offences, which dated back to 2006 and included dangerous driving, driving whilst disqualified, and driving without a licence or insurance.

Between 2012 and 2021 he received three jail terms for dangerous driving and was on licence at the time he tried to evade the police in 2023.

Judge Rose said Bahadur had made the “conscious decision” to take his wife’s car that day knowing that he was under a three-year driving ban.

He added: “There really was absolutely no reason for you to be driving other than your wilful disobedience of the disqualification, as you have done so many times [previously].

“You represent a demonstration that two years' imprisonment for the offence of dangerous driving still is far too short a maximum sentence for offenders such as you … with a lengthy history of criminal offending.

“Unfortunately the law says I cannot give you more than two years’ imprisonment however many offences you commit in whatever circumstances.”

He said Bahadur’s driving on the day showed “arrogance” and that he was “an abject failure” as a stepfather who should have been a better role model.

He jailed Bahadur for 21 months and banned him from driving for five years and 10 months.