A JUDGE today jailed two Bradford friends for eight years each after one of them “mowed” down a pedestrian while they were selfishly racing each other at “madcap” speed.

At the time Majid Malik struck 25-year-old James Gilbey in Stanningley Road, Leeds, last July his Volkswagen Golf car was doing no less than 79mph per hour in the 40mph limit.

Kaiz Mahmood, who was only a second behind him, was doing at least 67mph and was close enough to the collision to get spots of Mr Gilbey’s blood on his white Audi.

He drove on without stopping while Malik and his passenger briefly walked back to the scene where Mr Gilbey had suffered multiple injuries from which he died, then also drove off, Leeds Crown Court heard today.

Jonathan Sharp, prosecuting, said the pair had covered half a mile in only 21 seconds from KFC premises where they had stopped at lights to the scene of the crash.

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Mr Gilbey, who was crossing the road was flung 75 metres by the force of the impact with Malik’s car and was probably killed instantly, he said.

Malik’s registration plate was left behind at the scene.

Malik, 28, of Silverhill Avenue, Bradford Moor, admitted causing death by dangerous driving and Mahmood, 28 of Hinchcliffe Street, Undercliffe, was unanimously convicted of the same offence by a jury.

Sentencing the pair and disqualifying them both from driving for ten years, Judge James Spencer QC said: “You are here because you chose to race. The racing was no doubt spontaneous when you saw and recognised each other.”

But he said that decision showed evidence of arrogance, of their selfish disregard for others and their desire to show off, no doubt to one another and also their passengers.

A passenger in another vehicle had described to the jury how the two cars jostled for position, overtaking and undertaking, trying to get ahead of each other.

The judge said it was from the KFC lights “that the real evil occurred because from this traffic lights as soon as the lights turned to green you two sped off and it was the manner of your racing which pushes this into the most serious category because your acceleration was madcap.

“It was driving that was concerned only on getting ahead of the other. It showed complete disregard for all the road circumstances, the fact that this was in a built up area, that the road was limited to 40mph, that there were likely to be pedestrians on the road because of the time of evening.

"Indeed all you were concerned about was the acceleration.”

He said when they reached “the hapless Mr Gilbey” Malik had no time to stop mowing him down while Mahmood was so close “a splash of blood went on your car when you sped past”.

Malik did not stop in any meaningful way.

Judge Spencer told the defendants: “Neither of you had the guts to stop and you went on your way.”

He said Malik was only seen by police 24 hours later and Mahmood the day after that “by which time if there was any suggestion of drink it would be impossible to trace”.

Judge Spencer had heard moving and emotional family statements read to the court by Mr Gilbey’s father Major Richard Gilbey and told Malik and Mahmood: “Nothing I can do in sentencing you can ease the pain or loss you have caused.”

Stephen Uttley, representing Malik, said his remorse was genuine. “If he could turn the clock back he would.”

Elyas Patel, for Mahmood, who had denied racing in evidence to the jury, said he would not be present to support his wife who was expecting their second child.

After the case, Detective Superintendent Nick Wallen, of West Yorkshire Police Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, said: "Malik and Mahmood used the public highway as a racetrack and drove their vehicles at nearly twice the speed limit with complete disregard for the safety of other people.

"Their appallingly selfish actions caused the death of James Gilbey, who was a decent young man who had his whole life ahead of him. His family have been left completely devastated at losing him in such sudden a senseless circumstances.

"I attended the scene on the night of James's death and saw first-hand the horrific aftermath caused by these men's actions. They, however, fled the scene and had to be tracked down.

"This case has not only seen Malik, as the driver involved in the collision, convicted of causing death by dangerous driving but also Mahmood, who was racing with him.

"He has been found to be equally culpable for causing James's death.

"We hope this will serve as a stark reminder to others that we will always do everything we can to ensure those involved in causing deaths on the roads face the full consequences."

Drivers 'murdered my son'

THE father of crash victim James Gilbey, 25, described in moving detail the devastation his death had caused to his family.

Major Richard Gilbey read statements in court on behalf of his wife Angela and daughter Victoria but stressing that no words could possibly express “the grief, the pain and utter devastation” they were all feeling.

“James’s family are not the victim, James is. It is he that has had his life taken, cut so drastically short and depriving him of the future he was entitled to.”

But he said they each wept tears daily “as we think of James and the realisation he is no longer with us and that we will never be able to see, hear or talk to him again”.

He said his son should have had the expectation to walk in safety but that had been taken from him by the “dangerous, reckless, selfish” behaviour of Malik and Mahmood deciding to drive their vehicles at high speed showing a total disregard for the safety of others in “search of their own self-gratification”.

“It was those actions alone which deprived him, and us, of the future he was so entitled to," he said.

Major Gilbey said it broke his heart he was not able to be with his son at the time he was needed most.

“He has been taken from us so cruelly.

“My son was not killed as a result of dangerous driving, he was murdered. Anybody who chooses to drive a car at that speed in that area must accept they can kill, no less so than firing a gun or plunging a knife into a body.”
He described the actions of the two drivers, who drove off from the scene, as callous and heartless.

“They left him in the road to die without a second thought.”

He said as a result “our lives are destroyed, we are broken, our family is incomplete, there is a void in our lives.”