Man who crashed into wall in police pursuit jailed

A man whose car crashed into a wall as he was fleeing police has been jailed and banned from driving.

Ilyas Butt, 33, was behind the wheel when the car he was driving while being pursued by officers hit the drystone wall on Cooper Lane in Bradford in March 2025.

Just two months after that incident, he was detained again after running a red light at 70mph (112 km/h), Bradford Crown Court heard.

Butt, of Chain Street, Bradford, was sentenced on Friday to two years in prison and banned from driving for three years after admitting two counts of dangerous driving and one count of possession of 15 wraps of crack cocaine.

The court had been told that in the first incident, Butt had to be freed from a Ford Focus by fire crews, while in the second incident, on 3 May, he was driving so recklessly the police decided to back off due to concerns about public safety.

Meanwhile, the incident in May had taken place within hours of Butt appearing before magistrates in Leeds for another driving offence, the court heard.

Sentencing Butt, Judge Tahir Khan KC also ordered him to take an extended re-test before being allowed to drive again.

Butt's barrister Kathryn Pitters said that shortly after the second incident, her client had been given a community order and there had since been no further offending.

Pitters told the court there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation and asked the judge to consider a suspended jail sentence..

However, Judge Khan told Butt that he had a bad record for driving offences and he was satisfied the defendant had "no respect for the rules of the road".

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