Manningham driver who killed East Bowling man jailed for 5 years (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Manningham driver who killed East Bowling man jailed for 5 years

8:00am Saturday 4th February 2012 in News By Jenny Loweth

A speeding driver who killed a man while playing a “cat and mouse” game with another motorist has been jailed for more than five years.

Paul Hussain was behind the wheel of a sports car travelling neck-and-neck with the rival vehicle when he struck father-of-two John Harrison as he walked home from the pub, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Hussain – locked up for dangerous driving in 2008 after a 100mph chase through Bradford city centre – was imprisoned for five years and three months and banned from driving for seven years yesterday.

He pleaded guilty to causing Mr Harrison’s death by dangerous driving on March 6 last year, driving on the A650 Wakefield Road, Bradford, without insurance and failing to stop after an accident.

Prosecutor Jonathan Sharp said Hussain 26, of Priestman Street, Manningham, Bradford, was doing up to 60mph in an Audi Quattro S3 when Mr Harrison crossed the central reservation and jogged out into the road.

The Audi was a garage courtesy car and Hussain believed he was insured when he began “competitive driving” on the three-lane road.

He was caught on CCTV “neck and neck” with another car and a witness described him as “belting past”.

Mr Harrison, 46, a much-loved grandfather, was on or near a pelican crossing near his home in Lorne Street, East Bowling, when he was struck by the Audi and fatally injured.

Hussain and his two passengers fled from the car which rolled back into the crash barrier and burst into flames.

An accident investigator described damage to the Audi as “the worst I have ever seen in a pedestrian impact in an urban environment”.

Hussain handed himself into the police shortly afterwards.

Hussain was warned by a judge in 2008 that he could have killed or maimed innocent road users when he was jailed for 12 months.

The court heard Mr Harrison was married for 28 years. In a statement to the court, his wife Carole said: “Losing John that day has ruined my life and that of my children.”

Hussain’s barrister, Richard Gioserano, said he was completely and utterly remorseful. The other driver was trying to goad him into racing and Hussain decided to overtake.

“His thoughts are for the deceased’s family and his own family, not himself,” Mr Gioserano said. Hussain’s partner was expecting their fourth child and he had been working as a delivery driver.

Judge Robert Bartfield said the drivers were “playing cat and mouse with one another”.

“This wasn’t a conventional race. It was a sort of challenge in which you endangered each other and other people,” he said. “The result has been devastating, particularly for the Harrison family who have lost a husband, a father and a grandfather.”

After the case, a member of Mr Harrison’s family said: “He is only going to serve two and a half years. He has taken a loved one from us. I hope he has learned his lesson but I don’t think he got his just deserts. I would like to have seen him banned for life.”