Leeds 'family man’ who went speeding down ring road into oncoming traffic after police spotted mobile phone in his lap

“Family man” Hardeep Dogra, 49, of Old Oak Close in West Park, was at a set of red lights by the A6120 in Meanwood with a passenger at 1.15am on November 8, 2020, when a police officer responding a collision went to tell him that the road was closed. The officer saw Dogra’s phone was on his lap and, when asked about it, he sped off into oncoming traffic.

Dogra, who has worked in various government agencies, subsequently denied being the driver of the vehicle and it was only weeks before the case was set to go to trial that he pleaded guilty. He was jailed for 14 months for one count of dangerous driving and one count of perverting the course of justice at Leeds Crown Court on Wednesday.

For the prosecution, Rhianydd Clement explained that police spotted Dogra parked with his lights on by the David Lloyd Leisure Centre as they were responding to a collision that he had not been involved in. Dogra then moved off and stopped at a red light, which is when a police officer approached him and said that the road was closed. The officer then noticed that Dogra had his phone on his lap and the screen was lit. When the officer asked him to stop the car, Dogra accelerated away “for reasons which are obscure”.

The police officer struck his baton on Dogra’s window to try and stop him but he continued at speed into oncoming traffic, dodging out of the way of cars as he did so.

Police were able to identify Dogra’s vehicle and attended his property later the same morning, though he denied being the driver of the car and later argued that the car was parked at home at the time of the offence. Despite the police officer that approached Dogra’s vehicle at the time of the incident identifying him, he continued to plead his innocence until a few weeks before his trial was scheduled to start when he pleaded guilty.

Representing Dogra, Michael Walsh said that his client “panicked” in the moment and it “snowballed out of all proportion”. Mr Walsh added that Dogra had been made redundant, having previously held an “unblemished” career in the civil service and been of “impeccable character”.

Sentencing Dogra, Judge Thomas Bayliss KC said: “Given your previous history it’s difficult to understand what possessed you to behave as you did.

"It's difficult to think of a more dangerous piece of driving and it was done to get away from the police. It put your passenger at risk and it put other road users at risk. Why you drove off in panic has never been explained but you knew perfectly well what you were doing when you denied being the driver.

"I have had to consider whether I can deal with this by way of anything other than a prison sentence and I regret to say that I can’t. In my judgement appropriate punishment can only be achieved by an immediate prison sentence.”

Dogra was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment and banned from driving for two years and seven months.