A DRIVING “menace” who sped at 110mph on a 30mph residential road after turning his car’s lights off during a night-time police pursuit has been jailed for two years.

Banned driver Hassan Iqbal, 21, sped along Idle Road, Eccleshill, as he tried to escape officers who were chasing him at about 1.25am on October 16 last year.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday that Iqbal had turned his car’s lights off moments earlier when he reached speeds of 60mph and 70mph on nearby Wrose Road, Wrose.

Iqbal, of Arncliffe Terrace, Lidget Green, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance.

At the time of the offence he was on bail awaiting sentencing for another charge of dangerous driving that happened on April 22 last year.

Judge Jonathan Rose said: “You drove in a way that is frankly astonishing. Speeds of 60mph in a 30-zone would be bad enough. And you decided, because you are not only criminal enough but stupid enough, to turn the lights off on your vehicle at that time of night.”

He added: “You seem to have treated this as a game. But it is a game you have lost.”

On April 22, while banned for another offence of dangerous driving that happened on February 28 last year, Iqbal sped away from police who tried to speak to him in the Morrisons car park at the Victoria Shopping Centre in Bradford.

He drove at pursuing officers on Summerville Road, causing them to say: “He is going to ram us.”

Iqbal also crashed into three vehicles and drove at speeds high enough “for him to leave the road surface” when he went over speed bumps, the court was told.

He handed himself into police on May 6, the court heard.

Ilyas Patel, for Iqbal, said: “For reasons he himself does not know, he has become a menace on our roads. If he does not put a stop to this madness, he will end up killing himself or, worse still, seriously injuring or killing other road users.

“He comes from a thoroughly decent family. They are equally mystified as to his recent conduct.”

Mr Patel said Iqbal was close to his grandmother and cared for and supported her. He also had a job as an operative for a local cab firm.

He added: “He simply loses the plot the moment he ends up behind the wheel of a motor car.”

Jailing Iqbal for two years and banning him from driving for five years, Judge Rose said: “You have brought shame on your family and your grandmother.

"If you care about your grandmother, your employer or your family, this should be the end of your offending.”

MORE TOP STORIES