{"id":26436,"date":"2018-05-15T10:59:01","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T09:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/?p=26436"},"modified":"2018-05-15T10:59:01","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T09:59:01","slug":"reckless-driver-jailed-for-car-cruising-at-90mph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/15\/reckless-driver-jailed-for-car-cruising-at-90mph\/","title":{"rendered":"Reckless Driver Jailed for Car Cruising at 90mph"},"content":{"rendered":"

Footage was captured on police dash-cam showing a VW Golf driver Atif Qasim flew over an island on the A47 Heartlands Parkway, near Star City, while racing a BMW.<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of Operation Hercules, tackling street racers officers gave pursuit and quickly pulled over Qasim and BMW driver Sajad Hussain on March 25 as they raced at 90mph. <\/span><\/p>\n

The pair were arrested and charged with breaching the city-wide High Court order which outlaws street racing and wider anti-social behaviour like riding in convoy, performing stunts, or revving engines, blaring horns and playing loud music at vehicle gatherings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hussain, aged 27, from Ronald Road, Bordesley Green, admitted the offence at court on April 9 and received a suspended jail sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n

However Qasim, aged 20 from Ward End Park Road, Alum Rock, failed to turn up at court and was rearrested after officers tracked him down through known associates.<\/span><\/p>\n

When he appeared at Birmingham Magistrates Court on Tuesday, May 8 he was sent straight to prison to start a seven-month sentence and was also ordered to pay \u00a3726 in court costs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Car cruising injunctions are in place across the whole of Birmingham, Solihull and the Black Country.<\/span><\/p>\n

Birmingham Police Sergeant Martin Williams said anyone who flouts the injunctions by racing on the city\u2019s streets runs the risk of being jailed.<\/span><\/p>\n

He added: “Several drivers have been arrested and put before the courts in recent weeks for breaching the injunction.<\/span><\/p>\n

“They were given suspended jail sentences \u2212 which means if they are caught again they will likely end up behind bars \u2212 but this is the first case of a driver being handed an immediate term of imprisonment.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It should act as a stark warning to any motorist who thinks they can drive dangerously or anti-socially on our streets with impunity.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The Car Cruising Injunction is a powerful piece of legislation and ignoring it can have very serious consequences.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We run regular operations into the night on the lookout for anyone breaching the conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We won\u2019t tolerate street racers; these are public roads not private race-tracks and we\u2019re determined to bring offenders to justice and keep our streets safe.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Cllr Tristan Chatfield, Cabinet Member for Community Safety & Equalities at Birmingham City Council, added: “The courts have now made it very clear they share our view that car cruising is dangerous, anti-social and simply has no place on the city\u2019s streets.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I hope this sentence makes others think twice and helps make our roads safer places for everyone who uses them \u2212 and I also thank West Midlands Police for their support in enforcing our injunction to help achieve this aim.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Pictured: Atif Qasim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Footage was captured on police dash-cam showing a VW Golf driver Atif Qasim flew over an island on the A47 Heartlands Parkway, near Star City, while racing a BMW. As part of Operation Hercules, tackling street racers officers gave pursuit and quickly pulled over Qasim and BMW driver Sajad Hussain on March 25 as they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,37,3,112],"tags":[1094,982,1092,1093],"class_list":["post-26436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-local-news","category-news","category-top-stories","tag-atif-qasim","tag-jailed","tag-reckless-driver","tag-salad-hussain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}