Birmingham Man Gets 14 Months
A man who drove onto a Birmingham 10K course run, narrowly missing runners earlier this year, has been jailed for 14 months.
Unemployed Ibrar Shazad Boston, from Cooksey Road, Small Heath pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and driving with excess alcohol at Birmingham Crown Court where he was also banned from driving for over four years.
The 35-year-old had ignored marshalls at the Morrisons Great Birmingham 10k Road Race on 3 May and drove his blue Renault Megane over a grassed area and a pavement.
Police were alerted and spotted Boston gesticulating at a council worker in a road sweeper who was blocking his path on the Pershore Road. As the officer approached on a motorbike Boston drove off at speed, narrowly missing runners who had to jump out of the road for safety and just missing the police bike.
Boston then drove through cones and tape along Sherlock Street, before colliding with railings and abandoning the vehicle. He was stopped and arrested a short distance away after making off on foot, and trying to hide under a car, by the police officer who was assisted by one of the runners.
PC Gareth Johnson from the force’s traffic unit said: “The roads were clearly marked as closed while the race was taking place and it is fortunate that nobody was injured.”
