A driver who mounted a pavement at speed and deliberately drove towards four men outside a Bradford casino in an incident a judge said could have killed them has been jailed for 47 months.
Nadeem Khan, 49, was driving his friend’s Nissan Juke when he returned to Napoleon’s Casino on Bolton Road following an earlier altercation and drove towards the group.
Bradford Crown Court heard Khan had previously been banned from the casino and had become involved in an altercation with two men outside after being ushered out by two members of security staff.
Khan initially drove away from the scene.
However, he subsequently returned in the Nissan and drove at speed towards the four men, mounting the pavement and crashing through bollards.
None of the four was struck, although the vehicle left a trail of damage following the incident in May.
Judge Says Khan Intended To Cause Serious Harm
Sentencing Khan, Judge Sophie McKone rejected the suggestion that the events leading up to the incident could excuse his actions.
“Whatever happened before your offending is absolutely no excuse for what you did,” she said.
The judge said none of the four men posed a risk to Khan when he returned in the vehicle.
“You mounted the pavement. You crashed through bollards and it was clearly your intention to cause those four men really serious harm,” she said.
“Whatever had happened has finished.
“You could have got in your car and driven away, but you made a decision to do that.”
The court heard that two of those targeted were members of the public, while the other two were security staff carrying out a public-facing role.
Khan Found Asleep After Car Abandoned
Following the incident, the damaged Nissan Juke was discovered abandoned in the Forster Square area.
Khan, who is of no fixed abode, was subsequently found asleep at a property on Burnett Place in Bradford and arrested.
He was initially charged with four counts of attempted murder.
At an earlier court hearing, however, Khan admitted four alternative charges of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent as well as dangerous driving.
Defence Says Actions Were Out Of Character
Allan Armbrister, defending, said Khan had been affected by what appeared to have been an assault upon him and described his subsequent actions as completely out of character.
“He certainly wasn’t thinking straight,” Armbrister told the court.
He described Khan as a “hard-working, caring and industrious individual” and said he hoped those characteristics would return following his sentence.
Judge McKone stressed that whatever had happened beforehand did not justify Khan returning and using the vehicle against the men.
“It could have been a whole lot worse,” she said.
“You could have killed those men.”
The judge described the Nissan as a weapon in the circumstances, telling Khan: “You used a weapon to try and cause injury to those men and that weapon was a car driven at speed and so it was a highly dangerous weapon.”
Khan was sentenced to 47 months in prison and disqualified from driving for four years and 11 months. He will also have to pass an extended driving test before he can lawfully return to the road.