A JUDGE today set out his reasons not to lock up a teenager for his second offence of dangerous driving while on licence from a custodial sentence for house burglary.

Judge Jonathan Rose has repeatedly called for the maximum sentence for dangerous driving to be increased from two years but he told Bradford Crown Court that only Parliament had the power to do that.

As things stood, Uwais Akhlaq, who was already remanded in HMP Doncaster, would spend “far less than six months” in a young offender institution if he locked him up.

Akhlaq was 17 when he sped off from the police in a Seat Leon at 90mph down Bradford’s Keighley Road before crashing into railings in the early hours of August 15 last year.

The teenager, of Chellow Dene View, Heaton, Bradford, would have to be given full credit for his early guilty pleas to dangerous driving and driving without insurance, Judge Rose said.

A further discount would then have to be made because, although now 18, he was 17 at the time and the law states that he must be sentenced as a youth.

He had also spent time on remand because his bail was withdrawn in April after he failed to turn up for an appointment with his probation officer.

A letter from Akhlaq to the judge set out his determination to lead an honest life from now on.

His barrister, Ayman Khokhar, said he was resolved to grow up, further his education and find work.

Judge Rose told the teenager he was already developing “an appalling criminal record,” including a previous offence of dangerous driving and house burglaries.

Those who sped off from the police when ordered to stop almost invariably went straight to jail.

Explaining the “exceptional” course he was taking, Judge Rose said: “The maximum sentence for dangerous driving is far too little.”

With all the discounts he was forced by law to give from that starting point, the teenager would be out of custody in a very short time.

“You wouldn’t be detained long enough to receive proper punishment,” Judge Rose said.

Akhlaq was already subject to an eight-month suspended sentence order for an offence of assault committed after the dangerous driving.

Setting out the various orders he was making, Judge Rose told him: “You might have found it easier to stay inside.”

Akhlaq was sentenced to a two-year community order with a 15 day rehabilitation activity requirement, a requirement to attend the Thinking Skills Programme, 150 hours of un-paid work and a three-month electronically monitored curfew order between 7pm and 7am.

He was banned from driving for 30 months and then until he takes an extended test.