Driver four times over booze limit smashed head-on into Leeds police car
He drove straight onto the wrong side of the road
A motorist who blew four times over the drink-drive limit ploughed into a police car, injuring two officers.
Mohammed Jabbar was jailed after Leeds Crown Court heard it was the third time he has been found intoxicated behind the wheel.
The 41-year-old admitted failing to provide a specimen for analysis and dangerous driving, with the judge warning him he was lucky not to be charged with more serious offences.
Jabbar got into his Toyota Yaris on Harehills Lane late evening on November 22 last year. He was seen to drive off at speed, inexplicably cross into the opposite carriage and straight into the path of the police car.
It struck it with such force it pushed the police vehicle backwards.
Prosecutor Robert Galley said Jabbar then put the Yaris intoreverse and smashed into a parked car.
CCTV caught the crash and Jabbar was described as being visibly “heavily intoxicated”.
Detained, he was breathalysed at the roadside and blew a reading of 141 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 mls of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes.
Jabbar then refused to provide an evidential sample after being taken to the police station.
One officer was left with broken ribs in the crash and a second suffered “significant psychological harm”.
She read out her victim impact statement saying she was left in shock, suffers nightmares and is still scared to drive.
The police car was written off.
The court heard that Jabbar, of St Wilfrid’s Grove, Harehills, had twice previously received bans for drink driving.
A probation report suggested father-of-four Jabbar had been at a friend’s drinking on the night of the crash, but could not give any reason for getting behind the wheel.
Mitigating, Thomas Doyle described it as an “idiotic decision” and even acknowledged Jabbar could have faced more serious charges, such as causing serious injury through dangerous driving.
He said: “He is staring down the barrel of immediate custody.
“He has had a problem drinking for many years, it has never been resolved.
“He is at crossroads and that he needs to put down the bottle for good. He knows what he has done is atrocious.”
Judge Kate Rayfield told Jabbar: “You have shown no regard for the safety of other road users. This time your decision [to drive] had serious consequences.”
She jailed him for 16 months, and handed him a new 54-month driving ban.