A pharmacist's 'aggressive, ignorant, stupid, and dangerous' motorway driving left a family fearing for their lives. Amar Manzoor, 39, repeatedly slammed on the brakes of his BMW as he tried to weave around traffic causing another motorist to crash. But he then accused others of concocting a story 'to make him look bad'.
At the time he was driving in rush hour darkness on the M6, heading home to Bolton from a shift as a locum in Carlisle. Behind the wheel of a BMW 325, Manzoor sped down the motorway southbound at around 6.45pm on October 29 last year, close to Junction 36.
“Driving at speed and flashing his headlights, essentially to push his way through traffic,” prosecutor Andrew Evans explained at Carlisle Crown Court on Friday. Some other motorists pulled out of the way before Manzoor found himself behind a BMW X5 driven by Simon Prestwich and his family.
As Mr Prestwich attempted to move into lane two, Manzoor “cut him up by undertaking” in excess of the 76mph speed recorded by another driver using cruise control. “All parties describe Manzoor slamming on his brakes,” said Mr Evans, who spoke of the defendant “moving left and right, straddling lanes, essentially leaving him (Mr Prestwich) nowhere to go”.
One witness also saw him flash his lights “four to five times”. There was a collision between the cars of Manzoor and Mr Prestwich, whose vehicle was badly damaged after also striking the central reservation.
It spun into the path of an oncoming truck and was left facing northbound but a further collision was avoided. “There is a Russian doll of poor driving,” added Mr Evans of Manzoor. “It gets gradually more serious.”
Mr Prestwich had later stated: “The defendant’s actions caused me to crash into the back of him at motorway speed with my children and wife in the car. I feared for our lives. Both children suffer from disabilities and were extremely frightened.”
Mr Prestwich spoke of since sleeping only four to five hours a night and also said of the aftermath: “Me and my wife are in pain a lot. We do not socialise as much as we used to.”
When quizzed by police, Manzoor initially denied his driving was dangerous and, the court heard, suggested others had “concocted” a story to “make him look bad”. Manzoor, a father of five children, admitted dangerous driving on the day he was due to stand trial at a magistrates’ court. Witnesses said his driving was "aggressive, ignorant, stupid and dangerous".
Nigel Beeson, mitigating, said that guilty plea was entered “better late than never”. “I do not seek to minimise the poor standard of driving that my client displayed,” he told the court. “He wishes to express his remorse through me so it can be heard by all. I cannot do anything to reduce the seriousness of this driving and ask the court to look at the effect it will have on a number innocent children.”
But Recorder Paul Hodgkinson had said: “The mischief here is the disgraceful conduct of this defendant once he had forced other vehicles out of the way, and the reckless and dangerous manner he was braking in the outside lane of the motorway; somehow seeking to show the victim who was boss and to teach him a lesson for not moving out of the way as quickly as the defendant would like.”
Recorder Hodgkinson concluded that only immediate custody could meet the justice of the case, and jailed Manzoor, of Plodder Lane, Farnworth, near Bolton, for 10 months.
“You were flashing your lights, no doubt considering yourself more important than other road users, and your journey more important than everyone else’s,” said the judge. “It was persistent, it was deliberate and it was highly dangerous.”
Recorder Hodgkinson also noted the conclusions of a probation officer’s pre-sentence report, which stated: “Mr Manzoor failed to acknowledge that his actions could have resulted in the loss of life.” It also added: “He was only concerned on the impact that offence was now having on him.”
Manzoor — bespectacled and dressed in a smart three-piece grey suit for the court hearing — must serve a three-year driving ban when released from prison, and pass an extended re-test.
