Moment banned driver flips automobile after ploughing into backyard wall throughout 100mph police chase
This was the dramatic moment a driver, who was serving a three-year ban, was caught after a 100mph police chase where he flipped his car into a garden wall.
Liam Woods, 25, from Farnley, Leeds, was told he was ‘lucky’ he did not kill anyone after speeding through multiple red lights in his black Volkswagen Golf.
At Bradford Crown Court yesterday he was jailed for 16 months for multiple driving offences.
Police dashcam footage shown in court captured the 25-year-old weaving in and out of traffic in wet conditions on predominantly residential roads.
Daisy Wrigley, for the prosecution, described how the chase began in Tong Road, Bradford, at 9.20pm on December 4.
Woods was seen by officers going at 40mph in the 30mph zone and almost colliding with another vehicle in an attempt to overtake.
He then continued to overtake on the one-lane carriageway and hit 80mph after failing to stop for police when the officers activated their blue lights, the court heard.
Woods spent prolonged periods of time on the wrong side of the road, ignored bollards instructing motorists to keep left, and ran through multiple red lights- hitting speeds of 100mph.
Liam Woods, 25, was jailed for 16 months for multiple driving offences
Liam’s Volkswagen Golf after it crashed into a garden wall and was left overturned
Dashcam footage shows Liam Woods’ car overturned on the side of the road following the crash
The pursuit came to an end when Woods went through a red light at Gomersal Hill Top at 70mph and collided with another vehicle.
The car lifted into the air and came to a rest on its roof at the front of a house on Oxford Road- after destroying a bus stop, telegraph pole, and garden wall.
Woods got out of the car through a smashed window and ran from the scene, while his female passenger also exited in the same manner, the court heard.
The defendant was found in a garden and identified as being wanted on prison recall.
The court heard Woods said while being arrested: ‘I would have smoked you if I had known where I was going.’
One of the police officers described it as ‘the worst driving he had witnessed and it was clearly luck that there wasn’t someone killed.’
Woods has 12 convictions for 26 offences, many of which are driving offences.
This included being sentenced in January 2023 to two years imprisonment for causing serious injury by dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, and driving while uninsured.
His car destroyed a bus stop, a telegraph pole and garden wall before it came to a crashing halt
The sentence included a three-year driving ban, which followed on from several other disqualifications in the years prior, and Woods was ordered to take an extended retest to get his licence back.
He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, and driving without insurance at Leeds Magistrates’ Court on December 7.
Mike Walsh, defending Woods, said his client had made ‘steps forward since’ and now holds a CSCS (Construction Skills Certification Scheme) card, which allows him to work on building sites.
Mr Walsh added: ‘His decision-making when he gets under pressure, that is something he will have to ponder.’
Woods has a partner and young children and Mr Walsh said: ‘His partner is distraught by the fact he’s in prison for Christmas.’
He added that Woods ‘appreciates in some ways this situation wasn’t worse than it was’ and understands he was ‘lucky’.
His Honour Judge Jonathan Gibson said: ‘It ended because you had a serious collision.
‘It might easily had caused a fatality or serious injury.’
He added: ‘When you’re behind the wheel of the car you’re clearly a very highly dangerous person driving in the way you have been.’
The judge decided not to increase the disqualification, instead putting it in place for two years and eight months.
