A POLICE officer was injured when an unlicensed and uninsured driver used his car as a weapon while trying to escape being apprehended, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Umar Farooq first hit a fence and then struck a Mercedes Sprinter belonging to West Yorkshire Police, trapping the officer’s right leg between the van and the VW Golf he was driving.

Farooq, 27, of Basil Street, Little Horton, Bradford, later said he was test driving the Golf although he had never passed a driving test, prosecutor Samreen Akhtar said.

He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving without a licence or insurance, doing £431 to a fence belonging to Yorkshire Housing and £3,000 damage to the police vehicle.

Miss Akhtar said the incident happened on Withins Close in Great Horton in the afternoon of April 11 last year.

Three police officers on patrol spotted Farooq acting suspiciously in the black Golf. He was told to park up but he reversed into the fence and then hit the police van.

Miss Akhtar said an officer getting out of the van had his leg crushed between the two vehicles. He described being in “a large amount of pain” while unable to move.

His colleague managed to pull him back into the van as Farooq revved his engine. But the Golf was wedged between the Sprinter and the fence so he fled on foot.

He handed himself in at Trafalgar House Police Station three days later and made no  comment when questioned.

Miss Akhtar said the injured police constable did not seek medical treatment.

Farooq’s barrister, Abdul Shakoor, said he knew he was “staring down the barrel of immediate custody.”

He was test driving the Golf with a view to buying it when the police blocked his path and he panicked.

He was under the influence of cannabis at the time, Mr Shakoor conceded.

Farooq had no previous convictions and was very remorseful.

Recorder Simon Myerson QC described him as “a man who thinks: ‘I’ll do what I like’.”

“He doesn’t think of anyone but himself but now he faces going to prison he’s sorry,” he said.

Farooq had driven the car without a licence or insurance and then used it as a weapon to injure the police officer.

He was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, with 30 rehabilitation activity days, and 120 hours of unpaid work.

He was banned from driving for two years and until he takes an extended retest.

Farooq was also ordered to pay a total of £500, made up of compensation and the victim surcharge.