Colne drug driver collides with pick-up truck at Cowling

Amir Khan has now been banned from the roads for two years and handed a 12-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months. Khan, 27, of North Street, Colne, Lancashire, was at the wheel of a white people carrier that was seen to be speeding on the A6068 Keighley Road at Cowling, near Keighley, on January 19 this year. Khan ignored a police car's signal to stop and increased his speed to 85mph.

The court heard that there were no streetlights on the road, it was damp, and the police officer slowed as he could see oncoming headlights. The people carrier, which braked heavily, was in the middle of the road and swerved to the nearside as an oncoming vehicle approached. It speeded up again, overtaking at a crossroads junction.

When the police car came round a corner the officer saw there had been a collision between the people carrier and a pick-up truck. Inside the people carrier was a passenger, who was "hysterical", and Khan behind the wheel who said: "I should have just stopped." The people carrier was discovered to be unregistered and uninsured, and cannabis and a grinder was found in the driver's side door pocket.

Khan was tested and found to be over the drug-driving limit. He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, two counts of driving under the influence of drugs, having no insurance, and possession of cannabis. At Bradford Crown Court Mr Recorder Anthony Hawks described Khan's driving as "a one-off act of total stupidity".

He added: "You had plainly consumed a large quantity of drugs. You were in no fit state to drive. "The result [was] a police chase and the car that you were driving collided with somebody else's van causing GBP5,000-worth of damage.

"Someone could have been killed." He sentenced Khan to 12 months imprisonment for dangerous driving, suspended for 18 months, plus one month for each of the drug-driving offence, to be served concurrently. He ordered no separate penalty for having no insurance or possession of cannabis but ordered Khan's licence to be endorsed.

Khan was disqualified from driving for two years and must take an extended re-test before getting behind the wheel again.

Recorder Hawks also ordered Khan to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and to pay the victim surcharge.

He said it was "unrealistic" to make an order for compensation in the circumstances as Khan was not working.