Trainer jailed for crash that wrecked five police cars

A personal trainer who caused a “catastrophic collision” when he failed to stop for police while on a first date has been sentenced to 14 months’ detention.

- ELEANOR BARLOW

Mazyar Azarbonyad, 20, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving over the crash on the A1 west of Newcastle upon Tyne in the early hours of 9 April, which wrecked five police cars and left seven officers needing hospital treatment.

Sentencing him at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday, Judge Tim Gittins said: “It is nothing short of a miracle that no one was more seriously injured or that there were not multiple fatalities.”

One officer suffered soft tissue damage to her knee and nerve damage to her back, requiring her to remain in hospital for three days, and another needed stitches for a cut to his forehead, the court heard.

“It led to regional traffic chaos, misery for many travellers, not to mention the substantial loss of work and study hours for those that were caught up in the aftermath of what you caused,” Judge Gittins said.

The court heard that Azarbonyad, who arrived in the UK after fleeing his home country, Iran, when he was 14, was driving passenger Courtney Redfern home in a BMW X5 when he was seen by a police officer driving over the speed limit and with defective rear lights.