AN UNINSURED and unlicensed driver who led police on a five-minute chase through some of Bradford’s busiest city centre streets has been locked up.

Mohammed Khan, 20, of Quaker Street, Bradford, reached speeds of 78mph during the pursuit on June 25, which started on Marlborough Road and took in other locations including Carlisle Road, Lumb Lane, Manningham Lane, Killinghall Road, and Sticker Lane.

Police followed the white BMW being driven by Khan after reports it had been linked to an alleged incident earlier the same day.

Khan repeatedly failed to stop for officers, mounted kerbs and ran five red lights during the chase, forcing other drivers to take evasive action to avoid a collision.

He drove at 65mph on the wrong side of a 30mph section of Otley Road, and reached a top speed of 78mph on Queens Road.

On Sticker Lane, he narrowly missed pedestrians, including a lady with a pram, before becoming trapped down an alleyway where he crashed the car.

In mitigation, unemployed Khan said that the vehicle was a courtesy car leased by his passenger, and that he was “stupid” and “panicked” after seeing the police.

Sentencing, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said Khan “had no right” to be driving the vehicle.

He said: “This is clearly a matter that passes the custody threshold. It wasn’t a momentary panic, this was a real effort, at great risk, to avoid the police, and it nearly worked.

“The ultimate question is can I avoid an immediate prison sentence in this case, and of course I cannot.”

Khan was sentenced to ten months in a young offenders institution for dangerous driving, and banned from driving for two years.