A DRIVER who went onto the pavement before doing a u-turn and driving on the wrong side of a main road in Rugby in a bid to escape from the police was caught after crashing at a roundabout.
And after pleading guilty to dangerous driving and having no licence or insurance, Zaim Khan was jailed for nine months by a judge at Warwick Crown Court.
Khan, 32, of Dennis Road, Wyken, Coventry, was also banned from driving for 16-and-a-half months.
Prosecutor Simon Hanns said that on September 30 last year police officers saw Khan driving a black Peugeot 308, which had been reported stolen in a burglary, in Oliver Street, Rugby.
Officers tried to get him to stop, but Khan sped away towards Newbold Road, and at a roundabout he undertook other vehicles before heading along the A426 Leicester Road.
At the Junction One Retail Park he mounted the pavement to get past other cars, and then did a u-turn before heading back towards Rugby on the wrong side of the road.
Khan did another u-turn, heading back along Leicester Road until he collided with a van as he tried to get past it at the Tesco roundabout where he then collided with a crash barrier.
He got out of the car and ran off, but was chased and arrested, said Mr Hanns.
When he was questioned Khan, who had convictions for 32 offences including aggravated vehicle taking in 2005, admitted he had no licence or insurance, but claimed the car belonged to a friend who had given him permission to use it.
Arguing for a suspended sentence, Jamie Scott, defending, said: “As a younger man he committed a series of gang-related offences, robbery, fraud, firearms and drugs.
“But he’s now 32, and it does appear he has matured to the extent that his record demonstrates he has moved away from the serious stream of offending of his youth.
“He was generally moving in a positive direction following his release from his last sentence in 2019, and he had hoped to open his own business.”
But jailing Khan, Recorder Charles Thomas said: “This was a bad case of dangerous driving, involving a collision.
“The risk of injury or to life was obvious, but Mr Khan paid no heed to that risk.”
