A DANGER driver who injured four people in 10 seconds of carnage has been jailed for 16 months.

Mohammed Zaheer rammed his way out of a police road block in a high-powered red Honda Civic CRX shortly after 11.30pm on October 14.

He roared off, running a red light and hitting a black Suzuki Alto with such force that it span 360 degrees, flipped on its side and bounced back on to its wheels, Bradford Crown Court heard.

The Alto was shunted into a VW Jetta coming the other way and moments later, Zaheer smashed into a metal post. The fire service had to cut the roof off his wrecked vehicle to get him out, prosecutor Olivia Murray said.

Four men, two from each of the other crashed cars, were injured. The driver of the Alto sustained fractured ribs, a broken right shoulder and pain in his head. Another man was treated in hospital for back pain.

Miss Murray said Zaheer, 41, of Harden Grove, Idle, Bradford, was seen driving around the city at speed late that night. When he was spotted in Laisterdyke, he was ordered to stop and blocked in by two patrol vehicles.

After an officer had got out of one of the police cars, Zaheer revved his engine, reversed into a patrol vehicle and sped off.

Seconds later, he struck the Alto at the junction with Leeds Road. The momentum pushed the Alto on to its side. It sprang it back upright and was shunted into the oncoming Jetta.

Zaheer, who had racked up multiple convictions for driving while disqualified, gave a ‘no comment’ interview to the police.

He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and having no insurance.

Zaheer’s record of 90 driving offences stretched back over 20 years.

In December 2016, he was jailed for 22 months at Bradford Crown Court for two offences of dangerous driving.

He sped away from the police in a silver BMW and jumped a red light near the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford city centre in July 2016. After colliding with a Volkswagen Golf, Zaheer gave a positive breath test for alcohol at the roadside but failed to provide two specimens for analysis at the police station. Officers also found a small quantity of cannabis in the footwell of the BMW.

Zaheer failed to turn up at court after being given bail and, in November 2016, he was involved in a second police pursuit, this time involving the force helicopter. He was driving a Ford Focus that failed to stop and was pursued at speeds of up to 80mph around West Bowling.

Zaheer admitted two offences of dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, driving without insurance, failing to stop, failing to provide a breath specimen and failing to surrender to his bail.

The judge imposed a series of consecutive jail terms totalling 22 months and banned Zaheer from driving for five years.

Speaking about the latest offences, Zaheer’s barrister, Jeremy Hill Baker, told the court on Tuesday: “This was an appalling piece of driving. It is fortunate that that there were not more serious injuries caused.”

Zaheer, who worked as a mechanic, suffered a difficult childhood, and psychiatric and psychological reports revealed that he needed counselling to excise his demons.

“He has been a bubbling pot of risk of this sort of thing happening,” Mr Hill Baker said.

Judge Jonathan Rose said Zaheer had multiple offences of driving while disqualified on his record, serving several jail sentences and being banned from driving for periods of five and 10 years.

“No one watching that piece of footage could describe it as anything but an appalling piece of driving that could have killed,” the judge said.

He questioned if Zaheer might have been drinking that night, saying: “How can a man who is sober drive in that way?”

Zaheer had rammed a police car, endangering an officer who had got out of his vehicle.

He accelerated off in the dark through a red light on the wrong side of the road, hitting the Alto with such force that it flipped on its side.

“At least four people could have been killed. It was at the very, very highest level of dangerous driving,” Judge Rose said.

“The two-year maximum sentence seems to be inadequate to match the seriousness of what you have done.”

Although Zaheer was trapped in his car at the crash scene, the judge was legally compelled to give him full credit for his guilty plea.

He banned Zaheer from driving for seven years and eight months and forfeited “what was left” of his car.

Video made available by CPS