BMW driver who tried to let his injured girlfriend take the blame for high-speed crash on Yorkshire road jailed

Naseem Khan, 21, was today described by a judge at Bradford Crown Court as an exceptionally dangerous driver who had already accumulated an appalling criminal record for vehicle-related offending.

Recorder Richard Wright QC said Khan, of Oldham, had no regard at all for the requirements to be licensed, insured and not intoxicated with drugs.

The judge said Khan, who was only 18 at the time, drove off at “grossly excessive” speed when police officers tried to stop the BMW in January 2020.

He said Khan lost control of the car in “quite a spectacular way” when it was launched from the road surface into a field with a significant drop.

Recorder Wright said even an experienced police officer “screamed in horror” as the car was launched into the darkness and the officers expected to find the occupants gravely injured or dead following the crash on Rochdale Road, Ripponden.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Khan himself was not badly hurt, but his female passenger was injured, in pain and barely conscious.

She was later found to have suffered a fractured rib, but before the police officers got to the car callous Khan tried to drag his passenger into the driver’s seat in what Recorder Wright said was “a pathetic attempt” to make it look like she had been driving the car.

But Khan was unable to move the woman’s legs over and he then made up a ridiculous story about someone else being the driver and fleeing the scene.

“It was a callous and cruel response to the accident in which you showed no regard for your passenger or her welfare,” the judge told Khan.

While he was on bail over that incident Khan went on to drive illegally again in October last year.

“So you were utterly undeterred by that near-death experience in which you had injured your girlfriend and there you were again, on bail, driving with no regard for any other road users,” said the judge.

Khan was today sentenced to a total of three-and-a-half years in custody for offences including causing serious injury by dangerous driving, driving while unfit through drugs, driving without insurance, driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence and driving while disqualified.

The court heard that Khan had a previous conviction for dangerous driving and had never passed the extended re-test he had been ordered to take following some of his previous offending.

Recorder Wright stressed that Khan was subject to the requirement to take an extended re-test before lawfully driving again, but he also banned him from driving for five years following his release from custody.