A Fort William man who repeatedly drove at police vehicles during a nighttime car chase on Shetland has been jailed for 20 months.
Amir Abu-Al-Timen, 34, was also banned from driving for almost seven years after he appeared from custody at Lerwick Sheriff Court.
The HMP Grampian prisoner pleaded guilty to charges of threatening or abusive behaviour, dangerous driving and assaulting a police officer.
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank said he had never seen a similar case of dangerous driving in his entire legal career spanning more than 30 years.
In the early hours of March 29 this year, the accused was seen and heard shouting abuse, banging and eventually smashing the window of a flat belonging to his former partner.
He also drove his vehicle deliberately into her parked car on the Da Vadill housing estate in Lerwick, causing extensive damage.
When police arrived, Abu-Al-Timen fled the scene in a vehicle and drove directly at police cars trying to stop him.
A wild chase through Lerwick saw Abu-Al-Timen reaching speeds of up to 80mph on North Road, Lochside, South Road, Ladies Drive and elsewhere.
He admitted driving repeatedly at police vehicles, ramming parked vehicles and breaking excessively in an attempt to cause pursuing police cars to collide.
Abu-Al-Timen eventually abandoned the car he was driving and was eventually traced and arrested at an address in Sandveien in the afternoon of the same day.
Spitting at a police officer
The court heard that he assaulted a police officer by spitting at him during his arrest.
Defence solicitor George Henry said his client had lost his temper and “in the spur of the moment” decided to damage his former partner’s car.
He commented that “thankfully” nothing more serious had happened during the car chase, adding that it was “bad enough as it is”.
Sheriff Cruickshank described the case as the “highest possible level of dangerous driving”.
He told Abu-Al-Timen that he had shown utter disregard for public safety and in particular the safety of police officers while carrying out their duties.
The sheriff said he had the power to impose a two-year jail sentence for dangerous driving but had to consider Abu-Al-Timen’s plea.
Jail sentence
He jailed him for 16 months on the dangerous driving charge, disqualified him from driving for six years and eight months and told Abu-Al-Timen that he must first pass the extended test of competency to drive before being allowed back behind the wheel.
Sheriff Cruickshank jailed him for a further eight months for the abusive behaviour charge and issued a non-harassment order for two years.
Assaulting the police officer resulted in an additional four months in prison.
But the sheriff ruled that the first two custodial sentences will run concurrently, while the jail term for the assault on a police officer will be added to the total, making it 20 months in prison backdated to when Abu-Al-Timen was first taken into custody.
Flight delays hindered justice
Court was delayed for two hours on Thursday morning due to a delay of Loganair’s Edinburgh flight, which had a prisoner escort on board.
Expressing his displeasure, Sheriff Cruickshank said the delay was hindering the “administration of justice”.
Defence solicitor George Henry told the court that his flight from Edinburgh the previous day was also delayed by three hours.
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