A teenaged motorist who drove at more than 160mph down the M1 during a police pursuit has been jailed.
Usman Kiani was behind the wheel of an Audi A3 on the night of 26 April when he failed to stop for officers in West Yorkshire.
He then embarked on a pursuit that crossed five counties before ending in a crash in Leicestershire.
Our roads policing unit tried to bring him to a stop on the southbound stretch of the M1 but Kiani weaved dangerously around the nighttime traffic at breakneck speeds and managed to evade them.
At one point, he squeezed through a narrow gap between one of our vehicles and the central reservation, driving through the drainage gutter to speed past a rolling roadblock.
However, one of our cars was able to keep him in sight and direct other units into the pursuit, including a police helicopter.
Kiani was finally apprehended after leaving the M1 at junction 20 and crashing into a wall in the village of Theddingworth, Leicestershire.
The 19-year-old, of Cobden Street, Luton, was charged with dangerous driving, failing to stop for police, and driving without insurance.
He was jailed for 12 months at Derby Crown Court on Thursday.
Inspector Greg Hunt, who leads our Roads Policing Unit, said: “Usman Kiani fled from police and drove for miles upon miles at ridiculous speeds.
“His actions that night showed a shocking disregard not only for his own safety and that of his four passengers, but also the lives of other road users including my officers.
“One error of judgment behind the wheel at 165mph ends only one way – with death and destruction, and it is by sheer good fortune that this is not an entirely different story.
“The fact is that speeding kills. The limits are there for a reason and anything above that can easily result in serious injury or death.
“In Derbyshire, our focus is on clamping down on speeding and I hope Kiani’s sentence sends a message – if you speed, there are serious consequences at the end of the road.”
