A Leicestershire man Luqman Aslam 26 deliberately drove his van into a group of pedestrians in a revenge attack after seeing red following an earlier clash with the group of men has had his jail sentence reduced on appeal.
The 26-year-old delivery driver, of Warren View, Thurmaston, was sentenced to five years in prison at Leicester Crown Court in June last year after admitting to dangerous driving and attempting to inflict intentional grievous bodily harm during the incident behind Sainsbury’s in Lee Lane, near Lee Circle.
At his appeal hearing he was described as a “quiet” family man, held at London’s Appeal Court
Judge Jeremy Carey, sitting with Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, said Aslam had “used the car as a weapon” and that a long sentence was called for.
However, he acknowledged there was “substantial mitigation” and ruled that Aslam had received insufficient credit for his guilty pleas.
The judge who sentenced Aslam had described CCTV footage of what happened as “truly, truly shocking”.
It showed Aslam “quite deliberately mounting the pavement and driving straight at this group and right through the middle of them at speed”.
“It was remarkable that nobody was seriously injured or killed,” he said.
The attack happened after “exchange of words” between Aslam and the men, with Aslam coming to blows with one of them and the pair having to be restrained, the court heard.
The men were walking away when Aslam saw red and hit the accelerator.
His legal team highlighted his previous immaculate character and responsibilities as a husband and father of a young daughter.
At the time of the incident he had also been fasting through Ramadan for 20 days.
Judge Carey cut Aslam’s sentence from five to four years.
