Dangerous driver with ‘terrible record’ flouted five year ban behind wheel in Sutton
A convicted dangerous driver who is serving a five-year ban after injuring police officers in a stolen van was caught behind the wheel of a car he'd just bought in Sutton, a court has heard.
Mohammed Irfan said, “I shouldn’t be driving, I am banned,” when he was challenged by officers at Huthwaite Service Station, on August 7, last year, said prosecutor Becky Allsop.
She said he is banned until March 2025 and must take the extended re-test after admitting dangerous driving, aggravated vehicle taking, possession of cannabis and driving without insurance.
He was jailed for 22 months and banned for 69 months, with a nine-month extension, at Worcester Crown Court in June 2019.
Irfan was jailed again, and received a three-and-a-half year driving ban, for dangerous driving while drunk.
He was also serving a community order which was imposed for driving while disqualified in October 2022.
Sulma Mansuri, mitigating, said Irfan's cousin was buying the car and they planned to bring it home on a truck.
“He has a terrible record,” she said. “He made no attempts to evade the police at all. If he breaches the ban again he will go to prison.”
Ms Mansuri said a recent diagnosis of stage 2 cancer had an enormous impact on him and he is due to start treatment.
She said the stress of a suspended sentence would be an “unnecessary burden” while he is unwell.
Irfan, aged 35, of Coleshill Road, Hodge Hill, Birmingham, admitted driving while disqualified and without insurance when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Tuesday.
The presiding magistrate told him: "What on earth are you thinking? We would expect 18-year-olds to behave like this. But you’re a mature man whose offending over the last few years has been horrendous.
“If you commit a like offence again you will go to prison. Under any other circumstances you need to be very clear you would have been going to prison in a van right now.”
Irfan received a four month sentence, suspended for 12 months, with eight rehabilitation days “to get to the bottom of what is making you do this again when you know the consequences.”
He was banned for 40 months, with £85 costs and a £154 surcharge.