A BMW worker caught driving his new car uninsured just hours after he’d bought it decided to make off from police – because he didn’t want to lose his licence.

Saud Shargawi’s barrister, Kuljeet Dobe, told Oxford Crown Court that his client’s decision was also coloured by his experience of police during his childhood in Sudan.

“His father was politically active in Sudan and his father had been detained by the police a number of times and at least on one occasion beaten very badly. He was literally dragged away. Mr Shargawi was a child at the time and he saw that,” the lawyer said.

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Earlier, prosecutor Alice Aubrey-Fletcher said a police officer tried to pull over the 20-year-old’s VW Passat on Barns Road, Oxford, on February 19 after it showed up on the patrol car’s computer system as uninsured.

Shargawi flashed his left indicator light, as if to pull over, before making a sharp right turn and speeding away from the police.

During the three-and-a-half minute police chase, his VW hit speeds of around 50mph in small residential streets in Cowley and Iffley. He went through a red light, sped through a bus gate and hit a bollard.

The chase came to an end when he crashed into a metal gate then fled on foot.

He was caught and, when interviewed, admitted what he’d done. Ms Aubrey-Fletcher said: “He told police that he had bought the car that day.

“He told them that he had sought to arrange insurance but knew that the car wouldn’t be insured on that day but the insurance started the following day but decided to drive it anyway to the petrol station and the shop.

“He accepted he had seen the police lights and didn’t stop because he didn’t want to lose his licence.”

Shargawi, of Williamson Way, Oxford, had only passed his test in November 2021, receiving his licence the following month.

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He pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to dangerous driving, failing to stop for police and driving without insurance.

Sentencing him to 12 months’ imprisonment suspended for a year-and-a-half and banning him from the roads for a year, Judge Ian Pringle QC told the defendant: “You said you took off that day on February 19 because you wanted to keep your licence. I’m afraid you made a bad mistake.”

The court heard Shargawi had worked for BMW for the last week-and-a-half, although the judge questioned suggestions he had been driving tow trucks given the magistrates imposed an interim roads ban in March.

He was fine £250 for failing to stop and must not drive until he passes an extended retest.

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