Leamington night club doorman jailed after high speed police chase

By the time Mudasar Ali finally stopped, the tyre on his uninsured Seat Leon had completely disintegrated, and he was driving on just the wheel rim.

Ali (25) of Phillimore Road, Saltley, Birmingham, was jailed for ten months after pleading guilty to dangerous driving and having no insurance and no licence.

And after watching the police car’s on-board recording of the pursuit, a judge at Warwick Crown Court also banned Ali from driving for two years and five months.

Prosecutor Peter Grice said that at 3.40am on January 28 officers carried out a check on Ali’s Seat Leon after seeing it in Adelaide Road, Leamington.

It was not insured, so they signalled for him to stop, and at first he slowed and it appeared he was going to do so.

In fact, he later explained, he was setting his sat-nav – and then accelerated away, triggering a 5.9-mile chase a speeds reaching 115mph.

As he raced out of Leamington along Europa Way at more than 100mph Ali lost control of the Seat at a traffic island and went straight over it, damaging signs and the car.

He continued towards the M40, still at more than 100mph, until he reached the next island where, instead of continuing to the motorway, he turned onto the B4100 Banbury Road.

Ali continued at high speed, despite struggling to control the car because of a burst tyre, until he reached Ashorne where he finally slowed down and pulled over.

The officers found that one of the tyres on the Seat had completely disintegrated, leaving just the metal wheel rim.

Ali, who Mr Grice said had passed his test in 2016 but had had his licence revoked in September last year for driving without insurance, was arrested.

He said he had been working as a doorman at a Leamington night club, and had driven because he could not have got home by train at that time in the morning.

David Everett, defending, said: “He recognises the likely outcome is custody, but I would like to ask whether that could be suspended. He’s lucky to be alive, and lucky no-one else was involved, but at least he stopped and made a frank admission.”

He said Ali’s only previous conviction was for having no insurance, but because he was a new driver his licence reverted to a provisional one as a result of that.

Since then he had tried to re-take his test, but had twice failed the written test.

Mr Everett explained that Ali lives with his mother, two younger sisters and a 17-year-old brother, and is ‘relied on rather heavily’ by them.

Although he left school at 16 and went to college, he felt he had to work to help the family, and after spells as a forklift driver and with the Royal Mail, he began working as a door supervisor in Birmingham city centre.

But Ali, who is also doing a gas-fitter course at college during the day, was then offered further door work in Leamington and decided to drive because he needed the money.

Mr Everett added that while on bail Ali had been to Pakistan to see his grandfather, who was seriously ill, for one last time, ‘and came back yesterday to face this matter.’

While there he saw his father for the first time in 13 years, but while his grandfather improved and was discharged from hospital, his father suffered a fatal heart attack.

Jailing Ali, Judge Peter Cooke told him: “I am afraid it is Mr Everett’s eloquence against what I saw on the video – and he’s been trumped, I’m afraid, by the video.

“You were using your car to travel each day from Birmingham to Leamington, uninsured and without a licence.

“You embarked on nearly six miles at very high speeds of up to 115mph, which exposes you to the risk of killing yourself or colliding with someone else and killing them.”