A DRINK driver who sped off after a minor collision with his car bonnet obscuring his windscreen and eventually crashed into a wall has been locked up for ten months.

Bradford Crown Court heard that 51-year-old Wiktor Krupien had deliberately driven on busy Leeds Road in Shipley when he ran into the back of another car at 5pm on December 17, 2023.

The incident was described as “a bump” that nudged the other car forward as it sat at a red traffic light.

Prosecutor Jordan Millican told the court that the owner of the car and passenger got out to speak to Krupien but that he was unresponsive.

He said: “The pair believed the defendant to be either intoxicated or subject to a medical episode due to his glazed eyes and slumped body. At this stage [the other driver] contacted the police."

Whilst waiting for the police to arrive bystanders urged Krupien to get out of his car. Instead, he attempted to restart the engine as though to drive off.

He was told to remain at the scene but quickly accelerated onto the wrong side of Leeds Road narrowly avoiding a collision with another vehicle, clipping the kerb, and jumping a red light.

He then turned left onto Carr Lane and was out of sight of the other driver.

Krupien carried on towards Briggate in Shipley with the bonnet of his car up and covering the windscreen before colliding with a wall and coming to a stop.

He also collided with three parked vehicles nearby.

Police who found him at the scene discovered he was injured and bleeding from his right forearm. He also smelt of alcohol and his speech was slurred.

He was breathalysed at the roadside and found to have 146mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.

He was taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary where he refused to give a specimen of blood.

Krupien, of Cunliffe Villas, Bradford, later pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and failing to provide a specimen. The court heard that he had a previous conviction in 2012 for drink-driving and using a mobile phone whilst driving for which he was disqualified for 18 months.

Mitigating, Miss Ella Embleton said Krupien had expressed remorse for his actions and said the injury he received on the day had affected his mobility meaning he could no longer work as a builder.

She urged the court to impose a suspended sentence on the basis that Krupien was capable of living a law-abiding life.

Sentencing Krupien to ten months in prison His Honour Judge Ahmed Nadim said the court had been presented with “a fairly worrying picture” of his behaviour.

He said Krupien, who had been trouble-free for almost 12 years, had been punished “to a large measure” through his injury and its after-effects, which meant he could no longer work.

He added: “Giving regard to the nature of your driving, the circumstances in which you drove, the harm you in fact occasioned and the risk that you presented to others on a main artery road, I consider it necessary and appropriate that you should serve the sentence of ten months imprisonment immediately.”

He said Krupien would serve five months before being released on license. He was also disqualified from driving for 18 months plus the five-month license period, and ordered to take an extended re-test.

For failing to provide a specimen he received two months in prison to be served concurrently