A DRUNKEN man who injured three people by grabbing the steering wheel of his friend’s car which then ploughed into them following a brawl outside a nightclub has been jailed.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Kyle Thompson, 25, became involved in an altercation with three other men outside the Acapulco club in Waterhouse Street, Halifax, in the early hours of May 20 last year.

Judge Neil Davey QC said that Thompson, formerly of New Works Road, Low Moor, Bradford, had been drunk on the night of the fight and said it was “plain he was the instigator of the trouble”.

After arguing and throwing punches with the men in the street, Thompson got into a car belonging to his friend, who began to drive away from the scene.

As they approached a crowd of people outside the club, he grabbed the wheel from the driver and the vehicle hit three people sending them over the bonnet. All three were taken to hospital but suffered only minor injuries.

Thompson, now of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to charges of affray and dangerous driving.

The three other men involved in the altercation – Dean Regan, 29, his brother Gregory Regan, 24, both of Nursery Place, Halifax, and Andrew Smith, 26, of Croft Rise, Halifax – all pleaded guilty to affray.

The three were each sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work.

The court heard that Thompson was already serving a 27 month prison sentence, imposed in November 2016, for the attempted burglary of a house in Drighlington in April of that year when he acted as a member of a masked gang trying to steal a stash of cannabis.

He had previously been given a three-and-a-half-year sentence in November 2012 for the knifepoint robbery of a minicab driver in the Clayton area of Bradford.

Helen Chapman, mitigating, said that father-of-two Thompson was remorseful for his “appalling behaviour” in relation to the driving incident, and was “angry at himself” that he would now be kept in custody beyond his scheduled release date of before Christmas.

Of the affray, Judge Davey said: “Although disgraceful, it was relatively low-level. It involved more posturing and gesturing than actual fighting. This is not a case where a weapon was used or produced.”

Addressing Thompson on the dangerous driving, the judge said: “Drunk as you were, you leaned across, grabbed the wheel and swerved so that you could drive that car into a group of entirely innocent and helpless pedestrians, three of whom were thrown over the bonnet of the car. It is pure luck that they were not injured more seriously.

“Using that car as a weapon, as you plainly did, trying to hit pedestrians, as you plainly did, the starting point must be the maximum sentence for dangerous driving of two years.”

Thompson was jailed for a total of 27 months to start immediately. He will be banned from driving for four years on his release from prison.