Drugged-up driver caused chaos on quiet city street

Oct 10 2009 by Ross McCarthy, Birmingham Mail

A MECHANIC “out of it” after taking a cocktail of drugs drove his boss’s car into eight parked vehicles on a quiet residential road in Birmingham and demolished a lamppost.

Three of the vehicles were left as write-offs and Mohammed Amin was left facing a £25,000 insurance claim.

Judge Roderick Henderson said as a result of the drugs Amin had taken he was “completely out of control”.

He went on: “You caused enormous damage. You hit eight other motor vehicles, all of them being damaged and some being written off.”

The judge said residents had to stop Amin as he tried to drive away from the scene but accepted the defendant had had no idea the effect the drugs he had taken would have on him.

Amin, 37, of Bingley Street, Pennfields, Wolverhampton, who admitted dangerous driving and driving while unfit through drugs, was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment suspended for two years, ordered to do 140 hours’ unpaid work and banned from the roads for two years.

Rhydian James, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court, said on March 8 this year Amin had been at the wheel of a Toyota 4x4, worth £1,800, which had been given to him by a friend to repair. He had picked up others who had been smoking cannabis and at around 8.40pm he drove into Willow Road, Edgbaston, where he went on the damage spree.

Tests revealed Amin, who admitted taking methadone and smoking cannabis, had also taken cocaine.

Robert Rinder, defending, said it was only “remarkable luck” that no-one had been killed or seriously hurt.