MOHAMMED BASHIR

Faiser Iqbal

A restaurant manager, Mohammed Bashir, who washed his car in panic after dragging Faiser Iqbal under its wheels and fatally injuring him, has been spared jail.

Father-of-three Bashir, who had a prostitute with him when he fatally injured Faiser Iqbal in Bradford, admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Bradford Crown Court heard Mr Iqbal, who was sick of vice girls taking clients to the cul-de-sac where his family business is located, went out to remonstrate with the driver of a Volkswagen Passat after seeing its headlights at 3am on December 21, 2006.

Bashir was ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work, pay £672 prosecution costs and was also banned from driving for 12 months.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall yesterday told him he drove off in shame, fear and panic when Mr Iqbal, 22, challenged him.

Prosecutor Andrew Kershaw said Bashir was at the wheel, having picked up a prostitute in Lumb Lane.

Mr Kershaw said Bashir, a manager with Akbar's restaurant chain in Bradford and Leeds, feared shame, disgrace and personal hardship might ensue.

While fleeing the scene, he backed into Mr Iqbal, knocked him down and dragged him 80 metres under the car.

Mr Iqbal, of Bingley Road, Heaton, Bradford, died of multiple injuries in St James's Hospital, Leeds, five days later.

Bashir drove to Akbar's, in Leeds Road, Bradford, dropping the prostitute off on the way, the court heard. Mr Kershaw said restaurant staff thought Bashir looked ill.

He said he might have run over and killed one of a gang who tried to rob him.

Bashir washed his car to get rid of evidence of the collision with Mr Iqbal.

Two hours after the accident, he went to Lawcroft House Police Station.

He told officers he feared for his life, reversed, panicked and washed the car out of foolishness, Mr Kershaw said.

Timothy Stead, for Bashir, said he was being treated for depression and was extremely anxious.

He had a good job and was otherwise a decent and respectable man.

The judge said Bashir's standing in the community must have plummeted.

Mr Stead replied He has borne very heavily the burden of what he has done to his family.

The judge said that, unlike Mr Iqbal, Bashir had the rest of his life to look forward to with his wife and family.

I am satisfied that you drove in the manner you did in a state of shame, fear and panic, he said.

The judge said Mr Iqbal was absolutely and totally fed up with the use of that cul-de-sac for the purposes of prostitution, that you, unbelievably as a married man, were engaged in.

The judge said that because Bashir was not charged with any other offence, he felt compelled to sentence him to a community penalty.

The judge said Mr Iqbal's family would not see him driving round Bradford while they lamented their son. After the case Mr Iqbal's father Jawed Iqbal said his family was very disappointed that Bashir had not been charged with a more serious offence.

He said People go to jail and get banned from driving for doing something minor and this is like killing somebody and getting away with it. I don't know much about the law, I only know that it can't be right. How can I have faith in the justice system

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