A speeding banned driver who caused the death of his 20-year-old girlfriend when his car crashed through a wall and caught fire has been jailed for almost ten years.
Samir Amjid, now 24, had previously been warned about his driving and that if he continued as he was “he would kill someone”.
Bradford Crown Court heard how Amjid had been inhaling nitrous oxide in the moments leading up to the crash at 1.59pm on April 12, 2024.
Rescuers found Khadeeja Mahmood, a care home worker for the elderly, curled up in the passenger footwell of the grey Audi RS3.
She was unresponsive with only a faint pulse and died from her injuries in hospital six hours later.
Having been helped from the car, Amjid said: “Don’t tell them I was driving, I’m a banned driver.”
Once out of the car Amjid told others that he wasn’t the driver and that the driver had run off.
Outlining the events that led to the crash, prosecutor Paul Mitchell said the fatal collision happened on Baldwin Lane, a single carriageway 30mph rural road bordered by dry stone walls and open fields between Clayton and Queensbury on the outskirts of Bradford.
Shortly before the crash, witnesses saw Amjid’s Audi overtake other cars.
One said that both the driver and the passenger in the Audi had black balloons in their hands and were holding them in their mouths.
Another said the Audi went “flying past” as it overtook him and being “gone in a breath”.
Immediately after he heard a loud bang and came over the brow of a hill to find the Audi in a field.
It was on fire.
Other witnesses describe hearing the Audi revving its engine and driving at speed before colliding with a wall.
A crash investigation found that the Audi did not have an MoT and that neither Amjid nor Ms Mahmood had been wearing a seat belt.
A large canister of nitrous oxide was found in the car, together with several balloons, supporting the witness’s observation that the driver was inhaling the gas whilst driving.
Examination of the scene and CCTV footage concluded that the Audi was being driven at around 87mph on the approach to the point where the crash occurred.
The speed was described as “grossly excessive”.
Amjid, of View Road, Keighley, was arrested and later interviewed under caution and made no comment throughout.
It emerged that he had received a six-month driving ban just over two weeks before the fatal crash under the ‘totting up’ procedure following a number of endorsements for driving without insurance.
After initially denying responsibility for Ms Mahmood’s death, in February this year Amjid pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, with associated offences of causing death by driving whilst disqualified and uninsured.
In mitigation, the court heard that Amjid, who was just 21 at the time of the crash and described as immature, was “genuinely remorseful” for his actions, which had resulted in the death of his partner of three years.
He was said to have “struggled with guilt” for a long time after the incident and that it will “live with him for the rest of his life”.
However, it was conceded that he had not been “courageous enough” to indicate a guilty plea initially.
Jailing Amjid for nine years and nine months, His Honour Judge Jonathan Rose said the prediction that Amjid’s speeding could kill someone had proved “ominously accurate”.
He said: “You had no reason nor excuse for driving at all on that day, and still less could you be sure of any ability to drive when, by your own admission you had been using cannabis and nitrous oxide prior to driving.
“Despite being disqualified and uninsured, you went out with Khadeeja in your car, failing even to make the most basic precautions or steps to ensure her safety by ensuring she was wearing a seatbelt.
“Your driving was reckless, dangerous and wilful.”
He added: “I must accept that you were injured and in shock following the collision, but your first thought was for yourself.
“Even at that point your only thought was to save your skin.”
Of Ms Mahmood, known to her family as Cat, Judge Rose said she had been described as “the life and soul of her family” and “someone who would light a room with her smile and presence”.
He added: “Now, of course, that light is gone and those who loved her – her parents, her siblings and her wider family – have only the darkness of her absence, even now, two years since her death.
“No sentence this court can impose can ever be a measure of Khadeeja’s life, nor the opportunities she has lost, nor the pain her family and friends will have to endure for the rest of their lives.”
Judge Rose banned Amjid from driving for seven years with an extension of six years and six months.
He ordered the deprivation of the Audi.
Members of Ms Mahmood’s family were in court to witness the sentence being handed down.
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