A DRINK driver who led police on a 90mph pursuit before ploughing into a minicab at a city centre junction has been jailed.

Saad Mahmood, 23, was helped out of his white Volkswagen Golf by police after he smashed into a private hire vehicle being driven by Khalid Hussain in Thornton Road on August 20.

Prosecutor Heather Gilmore told Bradford Crown Court that Mr Hussain had been driving through a green light at the junction with Preston Street at about 6.50am when Mahmood ploughed into the side of his vehicle, sending it veering into a set of traffic lights.

After removing Mahmood and his girlfriend from the car, officers found a bottle of Grey Goose vodka in the passenger footwell.

Mrs Gilmore told the court that a few minutes prior to the crash, police had seen Mahmood driving at speed on Southfield Lane.

Officers then spotted him again on Cemetery Road, beginning a chase that led on to Legrams Lane and Ingelby Road.

During the brief pursuit, Mahmood drove through red lights, ignored mini-roundabouts, and overtook vehicles around bollards on the wrong side of the road while doing 91mph in a 30mph zone.

The court heard that Mahmood’s “luck ran out” when he drove through his third red light and caused the crash, leaving “debris strewn across the junction.”

Mrs Gilmore said that when spoken to by police, Mahmood was unable to count to 30 or touch his nose with his finger.

“It was clear from the officers that conducted proceedings that he was drunk,” she said.

The court heard that he told officers to “forget it” after three attempted breath samples failed as he had not blown hard enough. He also refused to provide a blood sample as he was “scared of needles”.

Mr Hussain was taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary following the incident and received treatment for bruising to his ribs and back.

Mahmood, of Westfield Road, Manningham, had been the subject of a community order for battery at the time of the offence after punching his then girlfriend in the face.

He had pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving, damage to property, and failure to provide a specimen.

On Tuesday, Recorder Ray Singh had remanded Mahmood in custody and adjourned the case to yesterday to give himself further time to consider his sentence, stating that the defendant was “no angel” and “fully deserved to go to prison”.

Shufqat Khan, mitigating, said his client, who had been drinking at a wedding the night before the incident, had been “crying himself to sleep” during his three nights in prison.

He said Mahmood had written to Recorder Singh saying he was “very regretful” about the incident and was not a “repeat offender”.

Mr Khan said: “This was behaviour totally out-of-character for him. He behaved irrationally as he was under the influence of drink.”

But Recorder Singh said of Mahmood’s letter: “He is a repeat offender, he was subject to a community order at the time of this offence. To say otherwise is wholly misleading and wrong.”

Jailing him for 16 months, alongside a three year driving ban, Recorder Singh told Mahmood: “Any person who lives in this city, if they look at the local news, cannot be oblivious to the problem of people driving dangerously.

“You showed a blatant disregard for traffic regulations.”