A DRIVER who left an innocent bystander with “catastrophic” injuries after crushing him with his car during a heated row over a dead dog has been jailed for nearly three years.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Nathan Scott, 27, had become embroiled in an argument with David Sparkes, who he blamed for fatally injuring his pet in a collision in April.

Prosecutor Jayne Beckett said that on April 22, Scott went round to Mr Sparkes’ house to try and confront him, after receiving a text message saying: “If you want a fight, come around here.”

After arriving on Sandfield Road in Idle, Scott started attacking a Transit van belonging to Mr Sparkes with a crowbar, shouting to one neighbour: “Who the f**k does he think it is, he needs to buy me a new dog.”

As residents intervened to stop Scott, he got back into his Volkswagen Bora and reversed towards one man, forcing him to jump out of the way.

He then reversed again, hitting Jordan North - who had come out of his house to try and calm the situation - with “considerable force”, knocking him under the vehicle.

Miss Beckett said of the incident: “Residents had to tell the defendant what he had done.”

Mr North was taken to hospital, where he was treated to “significant fractures” to his pelvis and leg.

In a victim impact statement, he said that his injury, which the court heard could become arthritic, had left him in a wheelchair for two months and signed off from work for a year. He said he had been forced to learn to walk with a frame and “can now hardly pick his daughter up because of the pain.”

Scott was not arrested until April 25, when he was bitten by a police dog after an incident in which a car he was a passenger in failed to stop for officers in Leeds.

He was taken to Leeds General Infirmary for treatment, with officers guarding his door during an overnight stay.

When he was allowed, without handcuffs or supervision, to go for a cigarette the following morning, he ran off and remained at large until he was re-arrested on May 7.

Scott, of Sandholme Drive, Idle, Bradford, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving, affray, escaping from lawful custody, and driving while disqualified.

Ken Green, mitigating, said his client’s row with Mr Sparkes had “got completely out of hand”, leading to him attacking his van.

He said that Scott had been trying to drive into the vehicle to cause further damage when he hit and injured Mr North.

On the collision, he said: “He never intended to cause any harm to anyone that day, certainly not the victim in this case. They regarded each other as acquaintances. He was horrified by what he had done.”

Mr Green added that Scott had absconded from custody at the hospital as he wanted to be present at the birth of his child, due at the end of May.

Judge David Hatton QC described the incident on Sandfield Road as an “very unpleasant and alarming display of public disorder.”

He told Scott: “The dangerous driving consisted of reversing the car twice at high speed, narrowly missing one man and then striking a man who had come to try and quell the situation. He unfortunately went underneath your car and suffered catastrophic injuries, from which he has not yet recovered, and perhaps never will.

“You behaved like a hooligan. But, I am satisfied it was not your intention to cause anything like the damage and injury you caused. I am not satisfied this was a case of deliberating driving at a person with the intention of causing injury.”

Scott was jailed for 34 months, and banned from driving for a period of 41 months.