POLICE searching a dangerous driver’s house after a hair raising high speed chase across Bradford discovered a stolen shotgun at the top of his cellar, a crown court has heard.

Jordan Bottomley, 22, of Mount Street, Eccleshill, had been looking after the Jabali 12 bore shotgun for someone else after it and other legally-held guns and valuables were stolen from a house in the city’s Haworth Road area a week before the chase, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC was told.

Bottomley, who was out of prison on licence for house burglary at the time he was arrested on April 22 this year, was sentenced to a total 30 months in prison at Bradford Crown Court yesterday for pleading guilty to dangerous driving, handling a shotgun and possessing a shotgun without a certificate.

He was also banned from getting a licence to drive for the next three years and will have to take a re-test after that.

Sophie Drake, prosecuting, described how an on-duty officer had spotted Bottomley driving a soft-top convertible black BMW which belonged to someone else when he pulled out without stopping on to Wrose Road in Shipley and sped off as the officer approached.

Miss Drake said cars had to swerve and brake to avoid him and pedestrians had to take evasive action as he drove at speeds of up to 70mph without stopping. The blue light chase passed through Livingstone Road and Gainsby Road in Shipley, on to Canal Road, Frizinghall Road, Keighley Road, Emm Lane, Heaton Park Drive, Toller Lane and Duchy Drive.

The officer lost sight of him at one point until Brantwell Drive, Heaton where Bottomley had collided with another vehicle and ran off before being chased by police on foot and caught.

It was later when officers were searching his home that they discovered the Jabali weapon, which had not been fired, being kept at his cellar head and identified it from a house burglary haul from April 13.

Ash Khullar, defending, said when Bottomley was released from prison in February he had wanted to stay out of trouble but problems with his ex-girlfriend over contact with his two-year-old child had led him to relapse into drug use and the offences had taken place.

Before sentencing, Judge Durham Hall told Bottomley shotguns in the hands of criminals were a major concern and summing up the police chase added: “You led them a hair raising chase which could have had real risk to life and property. You could have been killed. Others including pedestrians in residential areas could have been killed. You were speeding in excess of 60 mph. You ignored road signs and stop signs, cars were forced to brake and you were swerving in and out of cars, pedestrians had to take evasive action. There were near misses and also an inevitable collision with a vehicle. That is serious dangerous driving.”