AN “immature and foolish” teenage driver who led police on a brief but dangerous pursuit through Bradford streets by “driving like an idiot” has been banned from driving before even passing his test.

Police saw 18-year-old Aryaan Khan driving an unregistered Seat Leon with a smashed rear windscreen in an “anti-social and erratic” fashion on Girlington Road at 7.45pm on September 22 this year.

Prosecutor Peter Byrne told Bradford Crown Court that Khan, of Hedge Side, Bradford, ignored officers’ signal to pull over and instead sped off.

The resulting pursuit, lasting one minute and 22 seconds, was captured on the patrol car’s Watchguard CCTV system, which was screened in court.

Khan jumped a red light at Thornton Road and drove at speed narrowly missing other vehicles. It turned into the flow of oncoming traffic and then left into an alleyway on Hoxton Street. It collided with a telegraph pole and came to a stop on Agar Street.

Khan got out of the car and ran off pursued by the police who found him hiding behind parked cars on Waterloo Street.

During an interview with police Khan gave “no comment” answers to all questions. He was found to hold only a provisional licence and had no insurance to drive. The car was seized by police.

Khan, a mechanic, later pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, having no insurance, and driving without a licence.

Mitigating, Saf Salam pointed out Khan’s age, lack of maturity, his previous good character, and his remorse.

Sentencing Khan to 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years, His Honour Judge Jonathan Rose said: “It is difficult if not impossible to understand what on earth you were doing in September this year.

“You were already driving like an idiot before you drew the attention of the police.

“You are an immature and foolish young man to have bought this car in the first place.

“People could have been walking along as you drove in this criminally foolish way – at high speed when you don’t have the ability to drive sensibly.

“That had the capacity to kill people.

“There is an offence called death by dangerous driving. If you were facing that offence, which is quite possible, your sentence of imprisonment would have been immediate and measured in years.

“And you would have the death of another human being on your hands.”

Judge Rose ordered Khan to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work in the community and to observe a six-month electronically monitored curfew from 7pm to 7am.

Khan was disqualified from driving for two years and told to undertake an extended retest before getting behind the wheel again.

He was ordered to pay costs of £150. A deprivation order was made for the unregistered Seat Leon.