Student lied to officers after chase

A TWENTY-year-old student led police on a high speed chase through Oldham during the middle of the night, after officers tried to stop him.

Mahmood Hamza drove recklessly along narrow streets lined with parked cars and sped down a one-way street the wrong way before abandoning his hired Mercedes van and fleeing on foot.

Fast

Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court was told that Hamza, of Grange Avenue, Oldham, had driven so fast and badly that the pursuing driver could not safely keep up.

Jonathan Savage, prosecuting, said shortly after the van was found abandoned, he surrendered to the police, admitting he had been at the wheel.

He told officers he had panicked when he saw the patrol car following him and had only had his license for eight months.

Later however, he lied to police, claiming a cousin had in fact been the driver, and only came clean on the day he had been due to go on trial this month.

The recorder, John Bromley-Davenport QC, told him: “I know you are feeling very stupid to have done this.

“You’re a bright, intelligent young man, and you clearly lost your head on that night.

“You made a clean breast of it to the police, but then very foolishly claimed you had not been the driver.

“You have brought embarrassment on both your family and your friends.”

Hamza has been sentenced to 80 hours of unpaid work in the community, and been disqualified from driving for 12 months.

He will also have to take an extended driving test before he can get his licence back.

The court had been told that Hamza who pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving, had first been spotted driving too fast on Manchester Street, Oldham, during the early hours of December 21, 2014.

The police patrol tried to flag him down, but he accelerated away from the liveried GMP car.

Junction

An area search was mounted and about half an hour later the van was seen again at the junction of Green Street and Manchester Street.

The police driver activated his emergency lights and again followed the vehicle which sped through a 20mph limit in Oxford Street and over speed humps before losing the car by making a series of quick turns.

Imran Shafi, defending, said his client knew he thoroughly deserved to be banned from driving.

He said he came from a decent and supportive family and he had never been in trouble before.

He added: “He won’t trouble the courts again.”