Skipton man jailed after terrorising group of pedestrians & causing £5k of damage to their car

A Skipton man has been jailed for 20 months and banned from driving for 30 months after terrorising a group of pedestrians after they asked him to slow down.

Jonaid Ul Hassan, 25, of Brougham Street, was jailed by Bradford Crown Court on 8 November after pleading guilty to dangerous driving, criminal damage, possessing an offensive weapon and affray.

On 29 August 2022, Ul Hassan was driving a rented, white Audi through Skipton when he got into an altercation with a group of five pedestrians, including a child, when they asked him to slow down.

Ul Hassan became extremely aggressive towards them to the point that two of the group and their five-year-old child sought refuge in a stranger’s car when the motorist stopped to ask them if they were ok.

Ul Hassan went back to his car but returned to the remaining couple with a friend who made threatening comments to the couple along the lines of “keeping walking so we know where you live”. Feeling threatened and intimidated by the situation, the man and woman decided to hide. They split up with the man getting a lift with a member of the public and the woman hiding near the canal.

The couple’s friends who had got to safety, then arrived to pick up the woman and as they drove away, Ul Hassan began chasing them in his Audi, and hitting their vehicle with a weapon as he travelled. The police then began to receive calls from the public about a white Audi driving recklessly and deliberately hitting another car.

Dashcam footage from the victim’s vehicle then shows Ul Hassan getting out of his rented car in Tesco car park and attacking the victim’s car causing £4,956 worth of damage.

While being chased through Skipton in constant fear of attack, the victims called the police and were told to drive to the safety of Skipton Police Station by the call handler. 

Ul Hassan was later arrested by West Yorkshire Police after the Audi was stopped between Skipton and Keighley.

Inspector Julie Earnshaw,  of Craven Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “Ul Hassan not only put his victims in absolute fear for their life, but showed total disregard for the safety of all members of the public as he chased the victims through Skipton. His actions could have been catastrophic. I’m glad that justice has caught up with him, he now has ample time in prison to reflect on what he did that night.”

Ul Hassan’s sentence is made up of:

• Dangerous driving – 10 months in prison, 30 month driving ban, and ordered to take extended driving test
• Affray - 20 months in prison
• Criminal damage – two months
• Possessing an offensive weapon (baseball bat) – nine months in prison

All to run concurrently

He was also ordered to pay a surcharge of £187.00