A DRIVER with a broken leg led police on an 80mph chase after taking his mother's car without permission.

Amar Shaffi embarked on "a hair-raising trip" around central Bradford while nursing a fractured tibia and fibula caused when he himself was the victim of a road traffic accident.

Jailing Shaffi, 26, for eight months and banning him from driving for three years, Judge Peter Benson said: "It was a miracle that no-one was seriously injured, or indeed killed."

Bradford Telegraph and Argus:

Amar Shaffi speeds away from police in his mother's Volkswagen Passat

Shaffi, an electrician, of Highfield Crescent, Heaton, Bradford, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking and dangerous driving, shortly after midnight on November 19.

Prosecutor John Bull told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that he took his mother's automatic Volkswagen Passat without her knowledge. He was not insured to drive it and the police ordered him to stop when they saw him going at speed in Leeds Road.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus:

Amar Shaffi attempts to get away from police

Shaffi accelerated up to 80mph in a 30mph zone and narrowly avoided a collision on the Thornbury Roundabout.

He ignored Give Way signs and jumped red lights as he sped round in a big loop, taking in Leeds Old Road, Thornbury Road and Killinghall Road and cutting through narrow residential streets.

When the police deployed a stinger device Shaffi sped over it at 70mph and carried on with two burst tyres before coming to a stop.

Mr Bull said he had a passenger in the car with him.

Shaffi apologised to the police at the scene and said he panicked.

The court heard he had a previous conviction for aggravated vehicle taking when he injured a young girl.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus:

Amar Shaffi in the Volkswagen Passat, left, narrowly avoids a crash as he tries to escape police

Jayne Beckett, Shaffi's barrister, said he was badly hurt in a road accident several months earlier.

He appeared in the dock on crutches after sustaining a badly broken tibia and fibula.

Mrs Beckett said he was on ten different types of medication, including remedies for pain relief and depression.

Shaffi had been housebound for up to five months before the offences and had taken his mother;s car because he was "stir crazy", she said.

He was very remorseful and had not hurt anyone or caused any damage, she said.

"He is on anti-depressants and has had counselling and he is really not in a good way," she told the court.

But Judge Benson told Shaffi: "The fact that you yourself were the victim of serious injury from a car accident should have made you alert to the consequences of driving in this wholly irresponsible way."

Judge Benson added: "It was a hair-raising trip, lasting for about ten minutes."