AT Bradford Crown Court yesterday justice finally caught up with a driver who thought he could outrun the law.
Waqas Hussain showed no remorse for fleeing the scene of two accidents and leaving badly injured victims behind. It’s bad enough when stupid drivers put their own lives in danger, but even worse when they put other road users at risk.
Hussain’s mitigation was that he had “failed to appreciate just how serious his actions and driving were”. That’s a pretty thin excuse for getting behind the wheel with no driver’s licence and taking part in a highly-dangerous street race which ended in a crash; or speeding through Bradford at up to 80mph in a bid to evade police.
Judge David Hatton QC took a dim view of Hussain’s driving. Jailing him for the maximum term allowable, he said: “You drove at very great speeds in a thoroughly dangerous manner without any thought whatsoever for the safety of members of the public.” We could not agree more.
Hussain will now have several years to reflect on his behaviour from a prison cell.
In January, the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, said taking a hard line on motoring menaces was the Crown Court’s “New Year’s Resolution”. But since then there have been some perplexing decisions, such as the 28-day sentence handed down to a driver for speeding through a 40mph zone at 115mph while three times the drug-driving limit.
Waqas Hussain’s case shows that strong punishments are available to the courts. It just needs to use them.
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