Man who hit 115mph in late-night chase is jailed

WRECKAGE: The badly-damaged BMW M3 outside the BP petrol station
Picture/West Midlands Police

A DRIVER who crashed at Bacons End after reaching speeds of up to 115mph has been jailed.
Kamar Farooq had careered across a roundabout at the junction of Chester Road and Birmingham Road before colliding with another vehicle at the nearby petrol station.
Birmingham Crown Court heard that the 30-year-old - who was banned from driving at the time of the incident - had aroused the suspicions of police as he drove down Birmingham's Washwood Heath Road.
When officers signalled for him to pull over, he had sped off down the road. In the hair-raising chase which followed, Farooq had reached speeds almost four times the legal limit and at times drove on the wrong side of the road in his attempt to escape.
The pursuit through the streets, in the early hours of September 23 last year, came to a juddering halt following the collision outside the BP filling station.
At this point Farooq had jumped into the back of the BMW alongside two other men and tried to claim he had been a passenger.
Fortunately police were able to secure CCTV which showed the driver of the £85,000 sports car was wearing the same clothes as Farooq at the time of his arrest.
The defendant, of Aston Lane, Aston, had continued to deny being behind the wheel, but was convicted of dangerous driving and driving while disqualified and jailed last Friday (August 25). He received a two and a half year prison sentence and a further ten year driving ban.
PC Robert Lattimer, from Chelmsley Wood's road policing unit, said: "This was reckless driving by someone who should not have been behind the wheel.
"This was a high performance vehicle and the outcome could have been much worse. He now faces a long time behind bars rather than behind the wheel of a car."