A HUNT was continuing today for a violent carjacker who went on the run before receiving a 12-year sentence for a series of “terrifying” robberies.

Waqas Hussain, 20, was sentenced in his absence after being found guilty on five counts of robbery and the possession of a firearm.

During the closing stages of his trial, Hussain absconded from Bradford Crown Court alongside a 15 year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The boy, of Bradford, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in a young offender institution after being found guilty of two robberies, three attempted robberies, dangerous driving, and making off without payment.

He was arrested and brought back to court, but police said today that Hussain was still at large, with a warrant issued for his arrest and inquiries continuing to locate him.

During the trial, the court heard details of the robberies, which were carried out between October and December last year and involved weapons such as machetes, swords, and baseball bats.

In one incident involving Hussain, Jeremy Robertshaw, 47, was dragged from his Volkswagen Golf outside his home in St Matthew’s Grove in Wilsden by a gang of men wielding machetes.

The court heard he had been tasered three times on his own driveway even after he had handed over the keys to the vehicle, with Judge Colin Burn stating he must have suffered “significant trauma”.

In another robbery, Hussain was one of two men who pointed a handgun through the window of Jayne Berry’s Volkswagen Polo as she sat with her baby outside a takeaway on Halifax Road, forcing them out of the vehicle before making off with it.

In other incidents, Hussain was part of a group who brandished three-foot long swords at Stephen York, while taking his Audi on Thornton Road, and one of two men who held machetes to a Adam Forster’s face before taking his Volkswagen Golf and wallet in Listerhills.

In another robbery, Hussain, of Fearnsides Terrace, Girlington, was joined by the 15 year-old boy to rob Michael Stubley of his Volkswagen Golf on The Grove, Idle, together with a third man, who beat the victim around the legs with a pick axe.

The court also heard that the boy had been one of a group who followed Vanessa Dawson-Watts and her mother into the car park at Airedale Hospital before smashing the BMW’s front windows with baseball bats and threatening the pair.

The women were forced out of the car and ran to the hospital’s A&E department to escape, where they were described as “unable to speak due to shock.”

In another incident, the boy was part of a gang wearing balaclava masks who rammed Rebecca Brown’s Volkswagen Golf in Cross Hills, near Keighley, before forcing her out of the car.

Describing her ordeal, Judge Burn said: “She must have thought she was in a nightmare.”

The boy was also involved in the robbery a Volkswagen Polo from Yasmin Khaliq in the car park of Asda in Keighley, and the attempted robbery at the Avondale Dental Surgery in Shipley of a Volkswagen Scirocco belonging to Daniel Warren, who managed to escape the altercation and drive to Shipley police station, where officers found a large kitchen knife that had fallen into his car.

The charge of dangerous driving related to an incident on December 4 last year, when the boy drove a Subaru Impreza towards a police officer on Fearnsides Terrace, crashing into a police van after the officer managed to evade the car.

Judge Burn described Hussain’s actions as “systematic offending”, involving the “targeting of sole drivers or people in vulnerable positions”.

He said that once arrested, Hussain would be brought back to court to receive a consecutive sentence for absconding from the trial and breaching the conditions of his bail.

Addressing the boy in the dock, Judge Burn told him: “You created havoc and terrified a lot of people.

“You have single-handedly caused these people a significant amount of fear they will never forget.”

Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Inspector Ian Bryar, of Bradford District CID, said: “These were very serious offences in which Hussain and others used violence to steal desirable cars from vulnerable victims.

“Our enquiries into these incidents and other similar matters are continuing to identify the others who took part in these terrifying robberies.

“Violent crime will not be tolerated and the sentences passed should serve as a deterrent to others.”