Drink driver led police on ‘reckless’ car chase
A DRINK driver who led police on a ‘dangerous, reckless and deceptive’ high speed chase has lost her job with the NHS and narrowly avoided going to jail.
Kyanath Mahmood nearly crashed her ‘large and powerful’ BMW 5 Series into an oncoming police vehicle on Blackburn Road in Oswaldtwistle in the early hours of June 25.
She was then chased by officers at 70mph in 30mph residential areas before trying to ‘fool the police officer into thinking you had given up the chase’, a court heard.
The court heard how two stinger devices were used by police to puncture her tyres but Mahmood ‘still carried until the car couldn’t drive any further’.
When the BMW eventually came to a halt at a service station forecourt in Audley Range, Mahmood refused to leave the locked vehicle so officers had to smash a window to arrest her.
A roadside breath test registered 52 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, the legal limit is 35.
Mahmood pleaded guilty last month to drink driving and dangerous driving and Judge Philip Parry twice adjourned the sentence hearing so the defendant could prove she still had a job with the NHS once they were informed of her convictions.
Defence barrister Duncan Nightingale told the court that Mahmood had been sacked from the NHS but has secured a new job with a friend who runs a hair and beauty salon.
Judge Parry said: “It turns out in a letter that I have seen that they weren’t aware of it and once you did make them aware of it they terminated your employment. I quote from the letter where it says ‘there has been a lack of transparency by you in matters relating to conduct outside of the workplace’. That to me suggests you didn’t tell them.
“Your pre-sentence report describes you as a highly intelligent, honest and genuine young woman.
“That doesn’t really sound to me to be an accurate description of you because your driving was far from highly intelligent, honest an genuine. It was dangerous, reckless and it was deceptive.”
Judge Parry sentenced Mahmood, of Walter Street, Blackburn, to a 15-month jail sentence, suspended for two years with a 10-day rehabilitation activity requirement, 180 hours unpaid work and disqualified from driving for three years.
He told Mahmood: “Your driving was appalling. It was prolonged and it was highly dangerous.”