A minicab driver with two passengers on board was so drunk behind the wheel he could not remember being stopped by police in Bradford, a court heard.

Kamran Hussain, 24, was driving in Girlington Road in the early hours of January 3 this year when officers followed his cab after they saw a bumper hanging off.

After Hussain pulled up at the kerbside the officers saw him climbing into the back seat of the vehicle, prosecutor Heather Weir told Bradford Magis-trates’ Court yesterday.

“An officer heard the female passenger exclaim the driver was in drink,” she said. “The officers said he was clearly very drunk.”

The court heard that when Hussain got out of the car he fell on the floor, injuring his nose, and was taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary, where he became aggressive and swore at staff.

He was arrested and taken to a police station, where he failed to give a breath sample, an offence to which he pleaded guilty.

In mitigation, his solicitor Ash Mah-mood told magistrates that Hussain remembered nothing of the chain of events.

He said: “He accepts he had consumed alcohol and cannot remember what happened.”

Mr Mahmood also told the court that the two passengers were Hussain’s friends, not paying customers – a claim refuted by Miss Weir who said: “It is the officers’ view they were passengers as opposed to friends.”

District Judge Susan Bouch said: “He was driving a car, there were people in the car, there was damage to the taxi, Mr Hussain was so drunk he was falling over, and he was abusive at the hospital.”

After adjourning the case for a probation report to be compiled she sentenced him to 12 weeks in prison suspended for 12 months, a six-month supervision order, and disqualified him from driving for three years and sentenced him to 180 hours of unpaid work in the community She ordered him to contribute £100 towards court costs.

Hussain, of Charlesworth Terrace, Pellon, Halifax, had now sold his vehicle and was no longer working as a cab driver, the court was told.

After the case a police spokesman said: “Anyone who attempts to drive a vehicle after they have consumed alcohol not only puts their own life in danger, but the lives of others as well.

“West Yorkshire Police will not tolerate drink or drug driving.”