High-speed chase driver behind bars

Mudassar Khan: jailed

AN unlicensed driver who nearly hit a mother and child while fleeing police in a terrifying high-speed chase has been jailed.

Mudassar Khan (22) of Chester Steet, Werneth admitted dangerous driving, driving without a licence and driving without insurance when he appeared at Manchester Crown Court yesterday.

Duncan Wilcock, prosecuting, said Khan was pulled over on February 25 in his Toyota Yaris by officers who recognised him from previous encounters.

Pulling over on Lee Street, Oldham, Khan waited until an officer was at his window before driving off at speed, pursued by the police car.

Khan jumped a red light, raced across a roundabout and swerved across a slip road before forging through a central reservation on to Oldham Way bypass at 70mph. Then he slammed on the brakes to swerve across moving traffic to the wrong side of the road.

A woman and her child jumped out of his way as he jumped another red light and overtook a car on a blind bend.

He abandoned the car but was chased and caught by chasing police.

Laura Heywood, defending, said Khan was trying to get to a friend whose partner had gone into labour, so he could get them to hospital.

Jailing him for a year, Judge Mushtaq Khokhar told Khan: “It beggars belief this friend, who knows you don’t have a driving licence, would ring you to take his wife to the hospital when he could have rung a taxi or an ambulance.”

Judge Khokhar continued: “There could have been a serious collision, it’s only sheer good fortune that there was not. You drove on the wrong side of the road, a woman and child had to take evasive action. Anything could have happened.”

Khan was also given a two-year driving ban. His provisional licence was endorsed.