AFTER reversing away from a police officer who stopped him in Leamington and then going onto the pavement to get past a ‘road closed’ barrier, a driver triggered a high-speed chase.
But after reaching 100mph along the A46, Coventry man Aadil Choudhury lost control when he swerved onto a slip-road – and veered across all three lanes before ploughing into the central barrier.
Luckily he did not hit any other cars, and luck was on his side again when, because of delays in his case getting dealt with, he escaped being jailed.
Appearing at Warwick Crown Court almost a year after pleading guilty to dangerous driving, he was sentenced to ten months in prison suspended for two years.
The 26 year-old of St George’s Road, Coventry, was also ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work, to pay £120 costs, and was banned from driving for three years.
Prosecutor David Bright said at 7.15pm on Sunday February 21 last year the police had reports of a car acting suspiciously in Beauchamp Road n Leamington.
When an officer approached the Fiesta to speak to the driver, she immediately noticed a strong smell of cannabis – and Choudhury later admitted he had ‘just smoked a spliff.’
As the officer was talking to him, he suddenly reversed away from her before driving onto the pavement to get past ‘road closed’ signs as he headed towards Kenilworth Road and the A452.
Driving with his lights off, he overtook other cars, driving on the wrong side of the road at speeds of up to 70 along the 40mph limit A452.
He then turned onto the A46 Kenilworth by-pass where, having turning his lights on, he switched across all three lanes as he weaved between other traffic at around 100mph.
But when he then swerved onto the slip-road at the Stoneleigh junction, Choudhury lost control of the Fiesta which veered to the right, across the grass verge back onto the A46 and across all three lanes before crashing into the central barrier.
When he was interviewed after being arrested, Choudhury said he had panicked because he had been smoking cannabis.
The court heard Choudhury had pleaded guilty as long ago as May last year.
Explaining the delay, his barrister Simon Hunka said it had been decided the case should not be heard until an earlier drugs case in which Choudhury was involved had been dealt with.
That had led to another man being sentenced in relation to a quantity of cocaine, and Choudhury being fined for possessing £255 worth of cannabis.
Mr Hunka said Choudhury, who had no convictions at that time, came from a respectable family, with a sister who is a doctor, but he had left school at 16 to help support the family after his father left.
He also supported his mother, who has health problems, and began using cannabis to help cope with the pressures he was under at home and in his job at the time with HSBC.
