Certi Drivers YouTube: Yorkshire man behind notorious YouTube channel convicted under rare offence

Adeel Habib, of Harehills in Leeds, ran the Certi Drivers channel on the site which had almost 70,000 subscribers. He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving as well as the rare offence of encouraging dangerous driving under the Serious Crime Act 2007.

Clips on the channel showed him driving various high-performance cars on public roads, either at high speeds, weaving in and out of traffic, racing other drivers and ignoring red lights.

The 25-year-old came to the attention of police at illegal car meets in West Yorkshire, and while he was under investigation over the channel, was sentenced for four years in prison for his part in a drugs supply conspiracy.

Work from the Leeds North-East Neighbourhood Policing Team saw them pore over hours of online videos posted by Habib to build up an evidential picture of his own dangerous driving and its ability to encourage others to follow his bad example.

Inspector Richard Horn, who heads the Leeds North-East Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “Habib has been shown to be someone who regularly engaged in dangerous driving on public roads with all the potential risk of harm to other road users that accompanies such appalling behaviour.

“He was absolutely shameless about it and showed utter contempt for law-abiding road users and the law by regularly posting videos of his antics to impress his many followers.

“Those videos and the notoriety that surrounded his ‘brand’ clearly had the ability to influence others to flout road traffic laws and put other road users at risk, and he was rightly charged with an offence that specifically recognised that aspect of his behaviour.

“His own arrogance was his downfall in that those videos provided us with a rich seam of material to present to the court and have him answer for his actions.

“We hope his conviction and the sentence he has received will provide some source of reassurance to the public who I am sure will have been horrified by his dangerous driving and glamourising of it.

“It should also send a very clear message to those who think they can take part in and promote criminal behaviour in this way without having to face the consequences.”

Habib was sentenced to 27 months in prison for the new offences, and also banned from driving.