A DRUG addict damaged a police car by repeatedly ramming it with a stolen van he was driving following an extended pursuit.

Sultan Ali, 24, led officers on an eight-minute chase from Bradford to Yeadon starting at about 1.45am on January 29 this year, reaching a top speed of 84 mph in a 30mph zone.

Prosecutor Christopher Moran told Bradford Crown Court that after the chase involving a number of police vehicles, the van's tyres were burst by a stinger after passing through a tunnel in Victoria Avenue, Yeadon, but Ali tried to drive on.

After he was boxed in on a nearby grass verge, he kept revving his engine and trying to reverse back into a police car.

One officer had to smash the front windscreen of the van and strike Ali on the arm with his baton to stop him trying to move the vehicle.

The van was written off in the incident, and the police car was left with significant damage, with one police officer also suffering a shoulder injury.

The court heard that Ali, of North Avenue, Manningham, Bradford, had 19 previous convictions for 41 offences, including two for dangerous driving in 2010 and 2012.

He had admitted charges of dangerous driving, and driving while disqualified with no insurance at an earlier hearing.

John Bachelor, for Ali, said his client had been lent the van by a friend and had been dropping him off when he “panicked” at seeing police.

He said: “He accepts he cannot turn back the clock, and takes full responsibility for his actions.”

Mr Bachelor added that Ali had left his family home at 14 and had offended previously to feed his class A drug habit.

He said that since his arrest and time in custody, Ali had undergone a period of detoxification and “turned back to his religion”.

Judge Colin Burn told Ali: “In the state you were in, you were in no mood to be stopped at all.

“Police had to try to incapacitate you with a baton to stop you driving off again.

“You were having problems with class A drugs, you didn’t have much in the way of a moral compass at the time.”

Ali was sentenced to seven months in prison, and banned from driving for 27-and-a-half months.